At 1pm a crowd gathered at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in lower Manhattan for the 1 year anniversary of the murder of Eric Garner by NYPD and many are still wondering when there will be justice. The Garner family accepted an offer of $5.9 million to call of their lawsuit against the city but have still not seen any real justice. The NYPD officer, Daniel Pantaleo, who was the one officer who initially grabbed Eric Garner in an illegal chokehold which other officers joined in taking down the “gentle Giant” to the ground in a 5 officer pile-up.
The 7 minute video of the entire assault went viral and the man who filmed the murder was the only one arrested multiple times of which appears to in retaliation for taking the video. Daniel Pantaleo who’s been on pay desk duty since the murder has a history of complaints filed against him and the plaintiffs awarded $15k each for being stripped searched by Pantaleo in public.
Below is the hand written complaint by Eric Garner from Rikers Island after being stripped searched by officer William Owens on Sept 1st 2007. This is what Eric Garner meant when he said “This Stops Today”.
The event was put on by members of Stop Mass Incarceration, and the Revolution club with Carl Dix and Debra Sweet of World Can’t Wait.
One demonstrator, Kevin Lee, with Revolution Club, addressed the crowd and saying, “Capitalism and imperialism in the country treats people like less than human beings and we’re not tolerating it anymore”. Kevin pointed to the poster from #April14ShutItDown Rally against Police Brutality with the pictures of 44 people murdered by Police.
A few mainstream media turned out to film the event, including Russia Today. The demonstrators chanted “Indict, Convict, Send Those Killer Cops to Jail the Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell”.
Travis Morales of Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Revolution Communist party spoke next. “1 year since the murder of Eric Garner, 1 year since the whole world saw the video of Daniel Pantaleo choking Eric Garner, choking him to death. 1 year since we heard Eric’s dying words, I Can’t Breathe, 11 times, 1 year and still we have no justice. 1 year and Daniel Pantaleo is walking the streets a free man. The police are given a green light to murder with impunity, black and latino people”. Travis Morales then went on to talk about Ramsey Orta, the videographer of the murder of Eric Garner and how he’s been retaliated against by NYPD for filming the video and arrested multiple times on bogus charges.
Carl Dix, founding member of the Revolution Communist party and co founder of Stop Mass Incarceration with Dr. Cornel West,#RiseUpOctober Stop Police Terror, said a few words next, “One year ago today we all witnessed a lynching. Back in the day, white mobs used to lynch black people but, we didn’t get to see it. This time it was video taped, this time, within hours, it was on the internet. We know who carried it our, we know the names of the 6 cops who committed it, who helped choke him to death. None have been put on trial or gone to jail. We got the evidence, we got the video of the murder. The system is telling us, we’re not going to put any of them on trial, this is a slap in the face”. Carl then went on to talk about the death of Sandra Bland and when he googled, black woman killed in police custody, he got 2 more women killed in Brooklyn in police custody, Alexandra, VA., Mississippi and LA.
Noche Diaz, also from Stop Mass Incarceration and Revolution club spoke next, who’s been arrested for protesting for Eric Garner last year right after the murder.
Then, the First Amendment exercisers made their way towards to the Ferry to catch the one at 2pm to march to the location where Eric Garner was killed.
Please see my April Watters Youtube Channel for video of event.
Also, see StopMassIncarceration.net and #RiseUpOctober for more information
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