Grand Jury Declines to Indict Police Officer in Staten Island Death of a Black Man Whose Death the Coroner Called Homicide

BALTIMORE, Maryland December 3, 2014 - In New York, the Grand Jury looking into the death of a black man, Eric Garner, has decided not to indict the police officer who caused Garner's death in the course of about one dozen officers placing Garner under arrest. Officer Daniel Pantaleo grabbed Garner around his neck once it appeared Garner was going to resist his arrest for selling contraband cigarrettes. The July 17, 2014 incident in Staten Island, New York was captured on video. Up to one dozen officers surrounded Garner - a huge, barrel-chested black man - and, when he allegedly resisted their attempts to take him into custody, Pantaleo put a hold on Garner and wrestled him down. Garner was said to suffer from asthma, and he could be heard saying on the video that he could not breathe as he lay on the ground, on his stomach, with police officers swarming over him, although not actually laying on his back. A controversial coroner's report ruled that Garner's death - due to compression of the neck and throat during his restraint - was a death by homicide. Nonetheless, the Grand Jury returned a decision of "no bill," meaning that the Grand Jury had voted not to indict Pantaleo. The Grand Jury could have indicted Pantaleo on charges ranging from first degree murder to any number of manslaughter charges or even for reckless endangerment. Garner did not actually die from the alleged choke hold, but had a heart attack subsequent to his arrest that, the coroner ruled, was brought on by the means of the arrest.

Coming, as it did, on the heels of the Feguson, Mo., Grand Jury decision not to indict a white police officer for the killing of a black man who did not have a weapon, city officials were prepared for mass protests. However, the weather in New York is cold and wet, and this may hold down the response.

The entire Staten Island incident will be magnified by what has just happened in Missouri. Also in the spotlight will be the actions of Eric Holder, the out-going United States Attorney General, who compared Michael Brown to Emmett Till, a young black man from Chicago who was tortured and murdered by two or more white men in Mississippi in late August, 1955. Till, in Mississippi to visit his great uncle, had spoken and, allegedly, flirted with a 21-year-old white proprietor of a grocery store. Three nights later, the woman's husband and another family member abducted Till from his great uncle's house, took him to a barn, beat him, gouged out one of his eyes, and shot him in the head. They threw his body into the Tallahatchie River with a 70-pound weight attached to his body with barbed wire. Three days later his body was discovered and pulled from the river. It was returned to Chicago, where he lived. There, Till's mother insisted on an open casket to force America to confront the heinous nature of the crime. The entire incident captivated and enraged America and put a strong focus on the racism that still lingered in the south.

Holder was openly criticized for comparing Brown's case to Till's.