In the Media

A coalition of police reform advocates is demanding the NYPD fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, and that it discipline all the officers involved in the case.

In a Wednesday letter to Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill, more than 60 community groups and family members of people killed by police blasted the mayor for “years-long unnecessary delays and obstruction” following Garner’s 2014 death on Staten Island.

NEW YORK – Hundreds of youth organizers carrying coffins and posters marched Wednesday at Foley Park, calling for Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department to fire all officers involved in the chaotic arrest and death of Eric Garner.

The "We are Eric Garner" rally, held on the five-year anniversary of Garner's death, followed Tuesday’s decision by the Department of Justice to not pursue civil rights charges against NYPD officer David Pantaleo, who put the 43-year-old black man in a chokehold.

NEW YORK — After years of silence, federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they won’t bring criminal charges against a white New York City police officer in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black man whose dying words — “I can’t breathe” — became a national rallying cry against police brutality.

The decision to end a yearslong civil rights investigation without charges was made by Attorney General William Barr and was announced the day before the five-year anniversary of the deadly Staten Island encounter, just as the statute of limitations was set to expire.

Advocates and elected officials who say police officers are disobeying and at times even mocking a police accountability measure implemented last year rallied at City Hall April 29 to demand action minutes before lawmakers grilled NYPD officials about that law during an oversight hearing.