'We're Not Finished': Eric Garner's Mother Calls For More Firings

NEW YORK — As the head of New York City's largest police union fumed and Mayor Bill de Blasio urged unity, Eric Garner's mother repeated the message she has been shouting for the last five years: Justice has not been served.

Gwen Carr has long demanded the firings of all the NYPD cops involved in her son's July 2014 death — and she stood her ground Monday even after Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put Garner in a fatal chokehold, was fired from the force.

"We’re not finished. We have other officers that we have to go after," Carr said Monday afternoon outside NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan, where Police Commissioner James O'Neill had announced Pantaleo's dismissal just hours earlier.

"You have heard the names. We know the wrongdoing that they have done," Carr added. At least one activist flanking her held a poster with the word "FIRED" superimposed onto Pantaleo's portrait and a check mark next to the words "STEP ONE DONE."

Carr once again issued her demands for further accountability as de Blasio praised the institution that delivered Pantaleo's firing and the bombastic police union president Patrick Lynch cast it as a sign of the police apocalypse.

De Blasio said he felt the NYPD’s internal disciplinary process had brought long-delayed justice to Garner’s family. Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado recommended his ouster after an administrative trial; the officer has avoided state and federal criminal charges.

The Democratic mayor urged New Yorkers to work with the police to ensure that a tragedy like Garner’s death never happens again. And he expressed confidence that Pantaleo's former peers would continue to uphold their oaths even with him out of a job.

"Today will not bring Eric Garner back, but I hope it brings some small measure of closure and peace to the Garner family," de Blasio, who is also running for president, told reporters at City Hall. "Now we have to look beyond this tragedy, because our city is at a pivotal moment."

But police-reform activists said they would not give up their push for further firings. They called out five other cops including Officer Justin Damico, Pantaleo's partner that day who said on a police report that no force was used; Lt. Christopher Bannon, who texted a sergeant that Garner's death was "not a big deal"; and Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, who was the superivising officer on the scene. The NYPD currently plans to start disciplinary proceedings only against Adonis.

The Rev. Kirsten John Foy, the head of The Arc of Justice, also called for an investigation into the Staten Island grand jury proceedings that returned no charges against Pantaleo and a law codifying the NYPD's ban on chokeholds.

"He said this is closure, that this is done with. That is wishful, delusional thinking on behalf of the mayor," said Loyda Colon, the co-director of the Justice Committee, a police reform group. "This is far from over."

De Blasio is also facing pressure from Lynch and his union, the New York City Police Benevolent Association. Lynch hinted at a work slowdown by the city’s rank and file police officers, who he said have been abandoned by City Hall and police headquarters.

While he did not explicitly call for a slowdown like the one that followed the late 2014 murder of two cops in Brooklyn, Lynch said his union was advising officers to follow NYPD rules to the letter and call their superiors whenever they are in a tough spot.

"We’re advocating for our members to protect themselves so they can protect the public," Lynch said at a scathing news conference Monday afternoon. "Realize you’ve been abandoned."

Lynch accused O’Neill of bowing to political pressure by firing Pantaleo, while the commissioner said the process proved the NYPD is "fair and impartial."

Pantaleo will continue to fight for his job — the cop plans to bring a lawsuit appealing O'Neill's decision to fire him, his lawyer, Stuart London, said Monday.

But Carr said she will likewise continue to challenge the NYPD to deliver justice for her son even though she has lost several family members in the course of that battle. Garner's daughter, Erica Garner, died after a heart attack in December 2017, as did Ben Carr, Garner's stepfather and Carr's husband, just last month.

"I’m out here for the long run," Carr said. "... You may have lost your job, but I lost a son."