The widow of Eric Garner, the black New York man who died after a white police officer put him in a chokehold, said in a press conference on Wednesday night she will not accept condolences from the officer.
“Hell no!” Esaw Garner said when asked about a statement, which stopped short of an apology, that was released by the officer on Wednesday night.
“The time for remorse would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe,” she said. Her comments came after a grand jury decided Wednesday not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death.
“That would’ve been the time for him to show some type of remorse, or some type of care for another human being’s life,” she said, to applause from the room.
In July, Pantaleo put Garner, 43, in a choke hold as the man yelled he could not breathe. The confrontation, captured on video, began after Garner was allegedly caught selling loose cigarettes.
Pantaleo, who was suspended by the NYPD after Garner’s death, issued a statement Wednesday following the grand jury’s verdict.
“It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner,” the statement read. “My family and I include him and his family in our prayers and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss.”
Garner’s widow rejected it in full.
“There’s nothing that him or his prayers or anything else that would make me feel any different,” she said.
She concluded: “He should be here celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving and everything else with his children and grandchildren.”
“And he can’t. Why? Because a cop did wrong.”
Watch the video below:
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Saw a “Miami Vice” in the '80’s when the corrupt Bahamian policeman smirked to Sonny:
“Again, my deepest condolences in your hour of grief”
All viewers of the show knew at that moment that the Bahamian was a slug (it came out, officially, later in the episode).
When I saw THIS “condolences” offering to Garner’s wife last night, I was made aware that this was the same kind of cop as I saw almost 30 years ago. Only worse.
The cop 30 years ago was a character in a play. The cop giving fake condolences in this case is a very real killer who has been protected by his fellow cops and a very, very bad prosecutor who is in the bag for the cops.
I guess “I’m so sorry for murdering him but look at the terrible situation I’m in” doesn’t carry the weight it did back in the mid 1800’s.
Ms. Garner’s condolences will come in the form of a DOJ indictment.
The trial will be difficult, but hopefully, and ultimately, constructive in revising police methods and attitudes.
jw1
I agree with Mrs. Garner.