New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said that he received a call on Wednesday from Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch. Lynch and Holder, according to de Blasio, said that there would be a Department of Justice investigation into the death of Eric Garner.
“Just before the meeting began, leaders here on Stanton island, I received a phone call from attorney general holder and U.S. Attorney Loretta lynch, they made clear that the investigation initiated by the U.S. Attorney would now move forward and it would be done quickly with a clear sense of independence and that it would be a thorough investigation,” de Blasio said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The call and de Blasio’s comments at the press conference followed news that no charges would be brought against the New York Police Department officer who put Garner in a chokehold.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) have both called for the DoJ to investigate as well.
District attorneys,and cops work together in the same communities,and on the same cases sometimes for decades, and often end up becoming close friends. This is what you get when a cop gets in trouble, his best friend handling the prosecution. Somehow that practice has to end.
Mr. Garner’s mistake was the size of his “crime.” In NYC it is now crystal clear that the authorities can legally kill you for selling a single cigarette on the street. Yet if you conspire to create, market, and fraudulently sell toxic securities that corrupt an economy, crash the system, and throw thousands out of work with a diminished net worth, you are given a socialized “industrial” subsidy, retain your job, and get a bonus, too. If you are going to commit crime in our modern world, make sure it is a really big one.
Yup; several people have suggested that a special prosecutor be mandated in all such cases for that very reason. Really important to get that idea into the public discourse, I think.
I would think that not only should the police be investigated but the prosecutor and grand jury as well. Something smells in NYC.
Since the medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, one has to inquire: by whom? If not Pantaleo, then who dunnit? I do hope the DOJ works on this, as a civil rights issue, and as a homicide. Civil suits for wrongful death should also go forward.