Fire the Officer in the Eric Garner Case? De Blasio Falters

In the end it turns into nothing more than just another political circus. Mom, who surely had some part in her son's reaching 400 pounds, emerges periodically to lament his passing, people demonstrate in Lower Manhattan (this was during the day; do any of these people in the photograph work?), family members tell us what a good fellow he was (even with a rap sheet a mile long), etc. I am going to ask the most terrible question I can think of here: The family received something like 6 million dollars from the City in compensation for Mr. Garner's death. If, by some great miracle, Mr. Garner could suddenly be resurrected, how much of that money would they willingly give up to have him back with them? Would they really want him back at a cost of 6 million bucks? Or would they be organizing their own chokeholds to get rid of the family embarrassment and hold onto their mercenary gains? None of them will ever have to sell single cigarettes in the street. I said it was a terrible question. Just answer it honestly!

Mr. de Blasio has made it a point to bring up his black wife and black son but he allows this police officer who choked a man to death to remain on the job. I wonder how he would feel if that was his son that had been choked to death, Eric Garner was somebody's son, brother, loved one. Mr. de Blasio is a fake politician and nothing else.

Due process? The officer needs to be fired! I just hope he does not retire and collect his pension or get 3/4ers.

DiBlasio is a frightened lap dog for the NYPD, a once proud police organization that has gone rogue over the past 2 decades, since Nine Eleven. He will not oppose or call out their brutality, their fiddling with crime stats, their continued refusal to deploy body cameras, the secrecy around civilian complaints and disciplinary records, or their wild, profane and thuggish frat boy culture. They are the biggest gang in NYC. And they are armed.

Fire Pantaleo. He should have the decency to resign. At least he still walks the earth.

Bureaucracies love to drag out investigative processes. Whether it's investigating teachers, cops, doctors, whatever...they take their sweet time causing needless and tremendous pain to all, while those could being investigated remain in a never ending limbo. It's neither fair to the Garners, nor the Pantaleos, for this matter to take years to settle. The only people who love this are the lawyers who can bill and bill and bill for the"exhaustive investigation".

I'm not going to vote for a mayor who won't adequately respond to police brutality, or to his own populace. I think many Americans agree with me on that, and on thinking deBlasio is de-blasé, should step aside in order to ease the path to 2020 for the very well qualified women running for President, and get back to basics in managing NYC.

To be fair, had Eric Garner killed a cop, I don't think Garner would have been charged, either. He'd've been executed: As he was, for selling cigarettes.

After so many years of exploiting his wife and son as political symbols to block black candidates from defeating him, perhaps the chickens will come home to roost. When Al Sharpton can credibly criticize you for false promises, not seeking justice and hypocrisy, you know you are in serious trouble.

I enjoy a good De Blasio bashing as much as the next person, but per this very article, "As a legal matter, Mr. de Blasio cannot directly fire Officer Pantaleo; that role falls to the police commissioner, James P. O’Neill." So really what is De Blasio to do here? Pull a Trump and threaten to fire O'Neill if he doesn't let De Blasio rule by executive fiat? As for O'Neill, he's doing the right thing to let the process play out. Personally, I think Pantaleo should be fired for poor police work (although I don't think he's guilty of a criminal act), but that said Pantaleo deserves a full, fair process as much as any other worker does. Justice is not vengeance. In many cases it requires punishment, but it should not be rushed to appease those thirsty to essentially avenge what happened to Eric Garner.

Tawana Sharpton has no credibility. I don't know why anybody listens to him. The officer violated protocol and the deceased violated the law. He also did not do what the officers told him to do. Trying to decide who bears how much ownership of the outcome of this unfortunate incident is a complex task and not given easily to short newspaper columns. I am surprised that the officer is still employed by NYPD but I also know that his contract and local and federal labor laws have some applicability here. I suspect that the NYPD Commissioner will let the officer go for use of a forbidden tactic and I believe that would be the correct decision. But as to the multi-causal complexity of the outcome, I think "reasonable doubt" can be found as to absolute responsibility.

I write so someone at the paper will read my opinion. Not only is this guy not fired he is collecting $26K + in overtime . OVERTIME at a desk job I top of a $75k salary. I also would like deBlasio fired for reasons so obvious I need not repeat

The narrative repeated in so many of these comments that "Pantaleo choked Garner to death" has little resemblance to the actual evidence available to those who have decided not to prosecute. Whether those who now will decide how or if to sanction Pantaleo will pay more attention to that evidence or to Sharpton and the rest of the braying mob for political considerations is an interesting question. Respect for collective bargaining agreements that protect employees from management whims seems to be rather flexible for certain progressives.

And de Blasio has the nerve to run for president of US--this is a new definition of chutzpah.

Officer Pantaleo is currently on desk duty, received 120k raise and has pension benefits. So, I don’t feel sorry for him. About the DOJ, Eric Holder, supported charging, Loretta Lynch got push back from the Feds in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn civil rights division led by Vanita Gupta kept pushing the “not enough evidence” song. Lynch supported charges. Lynch replaced the FBI agents and the prosecutors, put in a new team from outside NY. Then the Trump/Sessions/Barr gang took over and it was a wrap. The deadline to charge was July 17th. Complete failure, enough for everyone

I think the mayor is acting exactly as he should in this case. Let the administrative process proceed as proscribed by law. If he came out with an opinion on the guilt of the trial for any significant case effecting nyc it would be prejudicial and possibly grounds for appeal. The reason this is taking so long is because the federal department of justice held on to this case for years before dropping it with no action.

Five years. Was the thinking that the passage of time would make it less heinous and few people would notice? That the public would have moved on? This was one of the most brutal and egregious murders in the history of this city, carried out in broad daylight and filmed. Five years, ten, twenty, it will not be forgotten. Eric Garner said 11 times he could not breathe. It was excessive use of force. Time cannot alter that.

Rule of law is rule of law. Even police officers deserve it, as do criminals whom we all know committed crimes. The process is as important as the result. Oh, and Al Sharpton? Has he ever apologized for calling that DA and state trooper rapists 30 years ago? Why does anyone care what he thinks?

Missing from this piece is the ridiculously slow pace of the investigation by the Federal Department of Justice, which started five years ago under Obama and his AGs, and dragged on long enough for Trump's AG Barr and now his Justice department to declare that they will not prosecute Eric Garner's death. While I am no fan of De Blasio, I think let the ongoing process play out, and then scream bloody murder if the NYPD commissioner does not fire Pantaleo AND De Blasio doesn't step in and makes him fire Pantaleo. Right now, if De Blasio steps in without waiting for the trial to finish, he may as well fire his police commissioner. In the meantime, why isn't the NYTimes asking former AG Eric Holder why he didn't push harder for (then) his Justice Dept to prosecute Pantaleo? Maybe that's just too inconvenient?

This whole situation is a disaster. Maybe Blaz could use this as an opportunity to show the stronghold “First responders” and their unions have on the executive and legislative branches of city and state government

I think it's pretty clear to me that de Blasio is bending over backward for the PBA's support. Remember when he first took office years ago. He was criticized by the PBA so much so it was bordering on personal insults and threats not to enforce the law in the city. So, i bet a backroom deal was struck and when Garner's death, excuse me, murder occurred , de Blasio agreed to delay, dealy and obstruct the invesigation and aministraive trial and firing. 5 years have passed, what other reason can there be? One or two years maybe, but 5 years? de Blasio will never get the Democratic nomination, Eric Garner, is the reason why. Too bad there isn't a recall from office statute in NYC, i would even fly back and take up residence for one year just to vote to recall this fake progressive mayor. He looks out for himself and not for justice for all NewYorkers.

The Mayor is like a cat on a hot tin roof. He kicked the can down the road for five years and now he has run out of road. The mayor used his son as a prop to win his first term because people thought he would have real honest oversight over The NYPD. When the cops turned their backs on his honor he caved and has caved ever since. The Mayor is running for president under the guise he can take on Trump. When my neighbors hear De Blasio thump his chest most of them laugh. For five years The Mayor ducked this and now he is in a pickle of his own making.

Officer Pantoleo should be charged with second degree murder or at least manslaughter. Garner was doing nothing illegal when he was harassed by the cops. What was he doing, selling cigarettes, one at a time, that he himself owned and bought and paid the tax on? Kearly our mayor is too lame to get this done. New York s loudmouth governor and attorney general should take the lead on this. It is within their jurisdiction.

The democrats can write a very demeaning resolution, but they act no differently than a republican when it comes to actual actions. Talk is cheap and democrats talk is definitely bargain basement. The GOP is hideous and that is the only thing that gives democrats even a bit of support. What the democrats routinely fail to do, however, is to act upon their rhetoric. It is proven over and over again that they say these things only to manipulate us into voting for them, while they support the same true constituency as the GOP.

This opinion piece is unbalanced. DeBlasio is right to insist on following due process rather than impatient feelings to deal with Pantaleo. That The grand jury didn’t bring charges against Pantaleo is one reason to proceed circumspectly. That the police commissioner, alone, not the mayor, can fire Pantaleo is further reason for the mayor to let the process unfold. That Diblasio won the mayoralty due to the political ad about his having a black son whom he counseled about dealing with the police is dubious at best and as committing him to fire Pantaleo it is far fetched. That al sharpton chimes in with blustery rhetoric is just demagoguery.

Why are they (all the police officers that had their hands on Mr. Garner and the supervisor at the scene) not ALL fired or at the very minimum punished already?? Definitely reeks of police privilege and protection.

Is anyone in NYC Surprised? Making grandstanding statements followed by excuses and inaction is the modus operandi of DeBlasio. Let not forget this is the same pandering Mayor who claims he wants to make NYC the "most green" city in the country while refusing to stop taking an SVU motorcade to the gym every day.

Although I typically find Mr. De Blasio personifies the worst in the mayoralties of NYC, as a 72-year-old lifelong New Yorker, I am in total agreement with him that all police officers deserve due process and this is not to be delivered by self-appointed mobs or other self-appointed leaders such as Alfred Sharpton.

President Obama and his Department of Justice had almost 3 years to develop charges in the death of Eric Garner but did not because they realized that there was no evidentiary or other basis on which to bring charges. Obama and his DOJ then decided to toss this political hot potato to the next administration, Trump’s, which reached the same conclusion. The New York State Attorney General’s office also concluded that there was no basis to bring charges. The US is a country of law. If two successive US Departments of Justice (one under a black President) and the NY State Attorney General could not—in 5 years!—find cause to charge the officer, most likely there really is no basis for charging the officer.

All of the officers involved should be fired.

Here is why the officer in question could not be charged and should not be fired: President Obama and his Department of Justice had almost 3 years to develop charges in the death of Eric Garner but did not because they realized that there was no evidentiary or other basis on which to bring charges. Obama and his DOJ then decided to toss this political hot potato to the next administration, Trump’s, which reached the same conclusion. The New York State Attorney General’s office also concluded that there was no basis to bring charges. The US is a country of law. If two successive US Departments of Justice (one under a black President) and the NY State Attorney General could not—in 5 years!—find cause to charge the officer, most likely there really is no basis for charging the officer.

“Enough is enough, de Blasio, step up,” Ms. Flagg-Garner said on Tuesday. “Do your job. Stop trying to be a president when you can’t even be a mayor.” This says it all.

Eric Garner's family deserves justice. So far, there's none to be found.

This should not surprise anyone considering that de Blasio was at the center of a series of conspiracy investigations involving his fundraisers and fixers bribing New York Police Department officials for favors. It is hardly isolated. De Blasio has lot in common with Trump. He refuses to fill most city agency positions, and when he does, he chooses sycophants. His emails he fought the release of show he's vicious, vindictive, and petty, so qualified people won't work for him. It is hard to fathom after all this time why anyone still thinks de Blaiso was ever a progressive or liberal champion. He's a pretender, a guy who defiantly defends his privilege to take luxury SUVs from one borough to another just so he can use his favorite health club while the City becomes hopelessly unaffordable, unlivable, and impossible to navigate. As if there aren't enough con-men in politics, in de Blaiso we have another. He's more than happy to pay lip-service to any progressive social policy as long as it doesn't cost the wealthy, and particularly his scandalously wealthy real estate donors, a penny, or risk offending powerful interests who already don't like Democrats, like the PBA and the SBA. A letter was just discovered from the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) President Ed Mullins telling members to defy New York City politicians and "stand shoulder-to-shoulder" with ICE agents during raids in NYC. de Blasio should absolutely confront the SBA over it, but don't bet on it.

The Justice Department is right that Mr. Garnet’s death is a tragedy. But the tragedy is that police officers once again escalated a situation that could have been so easily defused, and instead used excessive force to murder Mr. Garner. We’ll hear the usual comments about police “fearing for their lives” and “having to make split second decisions”. But none of that applies here. It simply was not necessary to use these techniques to “bring down” a citizen who was no danger to anyone. The officers involved had many choices, but chose to escalate. Mr Garner died because these officers used excessive force. All Americans should be alarmed that justice once again is denied, and that police murder goes unpunished.

Pantaleo is the patsy. There were several officers restraining Garner, and the primary blame is on the one kneeling on his chest after he was restrained and the supervising officers who did nothing at all to help him, the ambulance technicians who didn't pick up on the seriousness of his condition. The choke hold wasn't a solid one - if it were, Garner wouldn't have been able to talk. The stress of the restraint and the arrest and being on the ground with an officer's weight on him is what made the asthma attack so deadly. To pretend this is on the one officer, who did not cut off Garner's air (otherwise he wouldn't have been able to say "I can't breathe" - a basic lesson the ER taught me), not on all of the factors, is a game, trying to pick one sacrificial lamb so you can pretend that is the only problem. He used a choke hold he shouldn't have - but he wasn't the only, nor the worst problem. A knee on the back of a man who is having trouble breathing is a problem. And while police might not recognize the symptoms, for the ambulance technicians to also be so relaxed about his condition is what made this asthma attack fatal.