If you remember, a NY grand jury declined to bring charges against Garner back in December.
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Bernie Sanders has released a dramatic new ad featuring an impassioned plea by Erica Garner, the daughter of police chokehold victim Eric Garner, for Americans to vote for the surging progressive presidential candidate.
At the center of the case is Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who seems to be caught on tape putting Garner in the chokehold.
A grand jury on Staten Island declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges in Garner’s death.
Sources tell NY1 that two officers who were at the scene were called before the grand jury Wednesday.
“He never feels that he violated any federally protected right”, London said.
Chokeholds have always been banned by New York City Police Department regulations. It showed Garner in headlock repeatedly telling Pantaleo that he could not breathe.
“I’m behind anyone who’s going to listen and speak up for us, and I think we need to believe in a leader like Bernie Sanders”, Erica Garner says in the video.
Officers approached Garner that day after the deli owner complained that he was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. The medical examiner later determined that Pantaelo’s chokehold-which goes against NYPD protocol-factored in Garner’s death.
The city of NY reached a civil settlement with his family past year for $5.9 million.
Garner’s final moments became a rallying cry for protestors angry over police actions and how minorities are treated in the United States.
A federal court ruled that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional and tantamount to racial profiling. His deaths spurred national protests against police brutality. Separate grand jury decisions declining to prosecute police officers in connection with both deaths sparked national protests that sometimes involved clashes with police.
Pantaleo was stripped of his gun and badge, but is still with the NYPD on modified assignment.
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“The Department of Justice has told us all along that they’re taking the matter very seriously”, he said.
