Eric Garner

Reaction To Police Deaths Reveals Challenge To Raise Consciousness

December 27, 2014 Ta-Nehisi Coates, www.theatlantic.com Strategize! Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality

For activists and protesters radicalized by the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, this weekend's killing may seem to pose a great obstacle. In fact, it merely points to the monumental task in front of them. The response to Garner's death, particularly, seemed to offer some hope. But the very fact that this opening originated in the most extreme case—the on-camera choking of a man for a minor offense—points to the shaky ground on which such hope took root. It was only a matter of time before some criminal shot a police officer in New York. If that's all it takes to turn Americans away from police reform, the efforts were likely doomed from the start. The idea of "police reform" obscures the task. Whatever one thinks of the past half-century of criminal-justice policy, it was not imposed on Americans by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies—the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects—are, at the very least, byproducts of democratic will. To challenge the police is to challenge the American people, and the problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that we are majoritarian pigs. When the police are brutalized by people, we are outraged because we are brutalized. By the same turn, when the police brutalize people, we are forgiving because ultimately we are really just forgiving ourselves.

Garner Protesters Hold Candlelight Vigil For Slain Officers

December 23, 2014 Carly Schwartz, Alana Horowitz and Sebastian Murdock, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Eric Garner, Ferguson, killed by police, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

At a candlelit gathering in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, a half-mile from where officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot to death execution-style by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, on Saturday, several dozen people held makeshift lanterns made of Dixie cups as they marched from Herbert Von King Park to St. Philips Church in silence. The attendees, including many who have spent the past month protesting the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, said they came to honor the officers who were killed and those who have been killed by officers. "Tonight is an opportunity to come together for a moment of reflection," Michael Premo, 32, a freelance journalist and Bedford-Stuyvesant resident who helped organize the vigil, told The Huffington Post. "There's a lot of confusion, a lot of pain. ... The loss of these officers is absolutely tragic. Any loss of life is tragic." At the Bedford-Stuyvesant vigil, 25-year-old Darius Gordon dismissed recent remarks by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton that linked recent protests against police brutality in New York City to the murders of Liu and Ramos. "It's not comparable," Gordon said. Brinsley "shot his girlfriend before coming here from Baltimore. It's not related at all.

100 Brooklyn Public Defenders Walk Out In Eric Garner Protest

December 19, 2014 Ayana Harry, www.pix11.com Resist! Eric Garner, NYPD, police brutality

Over 100 Legal Aid attorneys walked out of Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday morning to protest the grand jury outcome in Eric Garner’s case. “Mr. Garner was our client and we wanted to show solidarity with our clients,” said attorney Rebecca Kavanagh. Bina Ahmed is a public defender on Staten Island. “We see a lot of police brutality,” she explained. “We see a lot of charges of resisting arrest when people are beaten to a pulp by the NYPD, to justify the brutality” After leaving the courthouse, the attorneys staged a ‘die-in’ on the front steps of the boroughs detention complex and a march outside District Attorney Ken Thompson’s office.

Post-Ferguson Moment Becoming A Movement

December 18, 2014 Dennis Trainor, Jr., www.acronymtv.wordpress.com Resistance Report Eric Garner, Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality

Over 50 thousand demonstrators marched from Washington Square Park, uptown through the heart of the holiday shopping district at Herald Square and then downtown to a rally and speak out at one police plaza. The march was lead by led by family members of those who have lost loved ones to police murder – including family members of Mike Brown, Jordan Davis, Shantel Davis, Sean Bell, Emmitt Till, Alberta Spruill, Ramarley Graham, and Kimani Gray. Local organizers stressed that this movement is growing out of the historical moment brought on by the Mike Brown case in and the “incredible bravery” of organizers and protesters in Ferguson, MO who have been in the streets, often facing down a paramilitary police force, for over 100 days and counting.

Dorchester Middle-School Students Protest

December 17, 2014 Universal Hub, www.universalhub.com Resist! Education, Eric Garner, Ferguson, police brutality

Students in the upper grades at the Joseph Lee K-8 School in Dorchester held a two-hour Black Lives Matter protest this morning. Kids who'd brought in permission slips walked from the school to the intersection of Blue Hill and Talbot avenues, where they chanted slogans such as "Hands up! Don't Shoot!" and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" Several teachers stood with them; three BPD cruisers and officers were parked on Blue Hill Avenue. Many passing motorists honked in support. "We, the students and the staff of the Joseph Lee School are planning a demonstration to support and increase awareness that ALL lives matter, inspired by the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and so many more."

Tens Of Thousands Surge Through Manhattan, Decry Police Violence

December 15, 2014 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Eric Garner, Ferguson, New York City (NYC), NYPD, police brutality

Like the waves of a tsunami tens of thousands surged through Manhattan on Saturday to decry police violence and the killings of unarmed Blacks. The Millions March reflected growing public anger towards a broken justice system tilting towards police impunity for misconduct. Marchers chanted “Black Lives Matter,” I can’t Breathe,” and “No Justice, No Peace,” popular catch-phrases of the growing movement.The Millions March was “unlike anything I’ve seen since the civil rights movement,” said Tippy Brooks, an activist who has been involved in social justice issues for 50 years.

Mothers Of Slain Black Men Come To DC Seeking Justice

December 13, 2014 Monica Hesse, www.washingtonpost.com Organize! Eric Garner, Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality

Since their sons’ deaths, the mothers had collectively been to hundreds of vigils. They’d made buttons and T-shirts with their sons’ faces. They’d formed nonprofit groups in their sons’ names: Mothers Against Police Brutality, Mothers on the Move, Mothers of Never Again. One of the cases was turned into a movie. Some of the moms had gone to an “empowerment retreat” hosted by the mother of Trayvon Martin, killed in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Time after time, there would be moments of attention, but then their stories got buried under different news and the mothers disappeared again. Now they were in Washington and hopeful once again. Every day across the country, protesters were holding rallies and marches and die-ins — there was a big march scheduled for Saturday in Washington — in response to the lack of indictments in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Erica Garner Stages Die-In Where Her Father Was Killed

December 12, 2014 Amanda Holpuch, www.theguardian.com Resist! Eric Garner, killed by police, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

Just outside a Staten Island storefront on Thursday night, Erica Garner laid down on the sidewalk where her father collapsed after being put in a chokehold by aNew York police officer. Garner led a group of protesters on a march to a memorial for her father, Eric Garner, who died shortly after the incident. The group staged a “die-in” next to the makeshift memorial, with people lying in the streets on a nearly freezing cold night in the New York City borough. Garner said she will continue to lead protests in Staten Island twice a week in memory of her father, who died at age 43 after NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in the chokehold. Garner’s last words – “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe” – have become a rallying cry for protesters across the US since a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo last month.

This Saturday National Day of Action: Wave Of Indignation

December 10, 2014 Staff, www.millionsmarchnyc.org Resist! Eric Garner, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

This movement for justice has been dubbed a “Wave of Indignation” across the country. What started as an urban revolt of young black people in Ferguson, MO has grown into a national movement for Black lives. The entire nation is awakening to the reality of our broken criminal justice system. We cannot stop or slow down now. This Saturday, we’re taking it to the next level. We’re asking you to join everyone in the streets this weekend and #ShutItDown. It’s our civil disobedience, marching and chanting that got us this far— and we must keep going. When you hit the streets, you’re letting them know: body cameras are not enough. Blue ribbon commissions are not enough. We need broad, decisive action NOW.

Defying Ban, Students March To Brooklyn

December 10, 2014 Colin Moyhihan, www.nytimes.com Resist! Eric Garner, New York City (NYC), NYPD, police brutality

The grand jury decision last week not to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner did not go unnoticed at East Side Community High School. The principal of the school, in the East Village, distributed a letter to students lamenting the decision. A “teach-in” was planned with activities like writing to the families of Mr. Garner and Michael Brown, whose shooting death by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., also passed without indictment, and writing to police precinct stations inviting officers to come talk with students about their jobs.

Garner’s Public Defender: Cops & Prosecutors ‘A Team’

December 10, 2014 Joseph Doyle, Bina Ahmad and Michael Rooney, www.vanityfair.com Educate! Eric Garner, Law, NYPD, police brutality

When a non-officer is accused of a crime, invoking his or her Miranda rights is the typically the role of the accused and their defense attorney. Yet, when a police officer is the accused, the entire department and district attorney’s office defer to an employment policy, rather than the overarching public interest of investigating serious crime by police officers. If we as a society expect police to be held accountable for unlawful, and sometimes abusive and deadly actions, we must rid these cases of secrecy, favorable bias, and conflicts of interest. Immediate answers include independent prosecutors and investigators, or employing the use of public preliminary hearings.

Three Nights Of Protests And Aggressive Policing In Berkeley, CA

December 9, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Berkeley, Eric Garner, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Police riot, Racism

The corporate media has described protesters in Berkeley destroying property and being violent, but reports from protesters describe it as a police riot. Police have repeated trapped protesters in kettles and made mass arrests, used billy clubs aggressively to attack protesters and used smoke bombs. They describe an organized protest being turned into confused havoc as a result of the 'police riot.' Protesters have been shutting down roadways and highways. The aggressive policing is not stopping the protests. On the third night of protests highways were shutdown and people laid down in front of an Amtrak train; once again there was police kettling and more than 100 were arrested.

From New York To Greece, We Revolt ‘Cus We Can’t Breathe

December 8, 2014 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org Resist! Eric Garner, Protests, Racial Justice

“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” Those were Eric Garner’s last words. He repeated them at least 11 times, clearly audible to the camera that recorded it all, as one cop sat on his chest and another suffocated him in choke-hold. And then he stopped moving. For six minutes they just left him lying there on the sidewalk — they didn’t do a goddamn thing to save his life. The coroner ruled it a homicide; another black man murdered by a white cop. Yet a white-majority grand jury chose not to indict him. Now we can’t breathe. We can’t breathe with this injustice in the air. We can’t breathe knowing that in America a black man is killed by police every 28 hours — and the cop usually gets away with impunity.

Bulls Derrick Rose Wears ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Shirt At Game

December 8, 2014 Andrew Hart, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Eric Garner, police brutality, Racial Justice, Sports

Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose warmed up for his game against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night wearing a T-shirt with the words "I can't breathe," paying tribute to Eric Garner, the unarmed black man killed by a police officer's chokehold in New York. This isn't the first instance of professional athletes using this form of protest. Last month, five St. Louis Rams players entered the field with their hands raised as a form of surrender. Some witnesses said Michael Brown had his hands up when shot, and the gesture, along with the phrase "Hands up, don't shoot," has been embraced by demonstrators nationwide.

Cop Who Killed Garner Sued By African Americans Three Times For Abuse

December 6, 2014 Kevin McCoy, www.thv11.com Educate! Eric Garner, Law, NYPD, police brutality, Police the Police

The Garner case wasn't the first time Pantaleo, 29, was accused of misconduct, however. Darren Collins and Tommy Rice alleged in a 2013 federal court lawsuit that Pantaleo and at least four other officers subjected them to "humiliating and unlawful strip searches in public view" after handcuffing them during a March 2012 arrest on Staten Island. The court complaint charged that the cops, searching for illegal drugs, "pulled down the plaintiffs' pants and underwear, and touched and searched their genital areas, or stood by while this was done in their presence." Pantaleo and three of the officers repeated the searches after they took the suspects to Staten Island's 120th police precinct, the complaint alleged.

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