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Eric Garner Memorial Mysteriously Catches Fire On MLK Day

A man in a mask stops at a memorial near the site of Eric Garner's death after it was announced that the New York police officer involved in the death of Garner is not being indicted in the borough of Staten Island ... A man in a mask stops at a memorial near the site of Eric Garner's death after it was announced that the New York police officer involved in the death of Garner is not being indicted in the borough of Staten Island in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. A grand jury cleared the white New York City police officer Wednesday in the videotaped chokehold death of Garner, an unarmed black man, who had been stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, a lawyer for the victim's family said. A video shot by an onlooker and widely viewed on the Internet showed the 43-year-old Garner telling a group of police officers to leave him alone as they tried to arrest him. The city medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide and found that a chokehold contributed to it. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) MORE LESS
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January 20, 2015 9:16 a.m.
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The memorial to Eric Garner, the unarmed black man who died after he was put in a chokehold by a white New York police officer, reportedly burned down overnight on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

At about midnight, Garner’s daughter Erica tweeted, “evil set my dad’s memorial on fire tonight,” but called for people to rebuild it on Tuesday. She later tweeted photos. An organizer of the group Right of Way also tweeted photos of the memorial in tatters at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday, saying the display was “burned to the ground.”

Police said they suspected candles accidentally burned down the memorial, according to the New York Post.

In September, a similar makeshift memorial to slain black teenager Michael Brown mysteriously burned down in Ferguson, Mo. Police also said the fire was started by nearby candles, but locals reportedly suspected arson.

h/t Vocativ

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  1. Evil candles?

    C’mon people, we gotta realize that unattended candles at a memorial are going to cause fires sometimes. Candles cause 3% of the reported fires in this country every year. http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/fire-causes/candles.

    There is enough pain in this situation without jumping to conclusions and creating extra villains out of a common accident.

    By all means, rebuild. But also realize that having just anyone put candles out there is likely going to result in future fires.

  2. Well , the police claimed to have multiple videos ( that they never released ) of that exact location after they chocked Mr. Garner to death.

    Let’s see the videos from last night.

  3. ARSON ! Somebody naughty set fire to it .

  5. “Police said they suspected candles accidentally burned down the memorial”

    Gosh…that just seems to be the case with every one of these memorials to police-murdered black folks, eh?

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