New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) on Tuesday blasted federal prosecutors’ decision not to charge a New York City police offer for killing Eric Garner in 2014, calling it an “injustice.”
“This decision is an injustice. It is further proof we have a criminal justice system that grants some families justice, yet denies it to others,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
“My heart breaks for @RealGwenCarr, Eric’s mother. Let us follow her words & example, and work for a system where #BlackLivesMatter.”
Democrats, including 2020 hopefuls Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), have also slammed prosectors’ decision not to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the case.{mosads}
The officer was seen in video putting his arms around the neck of Garner, an unarmed black man, in an apparent headlock on July 17, 2014, while attempting to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes.
Garner was heard saying “I can’t breathe” before he died, words that became a rallying cry for protests across the country demanding a change in use-of-force policies for police officers.
Pantaleo had denied the maneuver was a chokehold, which is prohibited under NYPD policy.
The medical examiner had ruled that Garner’s death was a homicide and later testified that the officer caused Gardner to have an asthma attack and that the apparent headlock was “part of the lethal cascade of events.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Richard Donoghue, said the evidence doesn’t support charging Pantaleo with a federal civil rights violation.
CNN later reported that Attorney General William Barr sided with prosecutors in New York over the Civil Rights Division in Washington amid concerns over whether prosecutors would be able to prove that Pantaleo acted willfully.
Garner was one of several unarmed black men whose deaths at the hands of police have energized the Black Lives matter movement and given rise to calls for police reforms.