The New York City medical examiner’s office has deemed Eric Garner‘s death a homicide, and people are demanding justice!
It was determined yesterday that Eric died as a direct result of being placed in a chokehold by a New York Police Department cop. Even though, weight, obesity and asthma did play a factor in his passing, the Associated Press reports that medical examiner ruled that it was homicide.
A rep for the medical examiner told the AP that Eric was killed due to “the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.”
Staten Island prosecutors are investigating the case, and Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Justice Department is keeping a close eye on their probe.
Shockingly, even Eric’s death has not caused an immediate, department-wide halt on the use of chokeholds to restrain suspects The NYPD has officially prohibited its cops to use chokeholds for years, but this tragic incident is evidence that officers are ignoring that restriction.
Police Commissioner William Bratton had ordered every cop in the NYPD be retrained on use-of-force policy following the death, but since then two more videos of cops choking people have been made public. In one incident, an officer held his arm across a pregnant woman’s throat when he caught her grilling outside of her home.
MUST READ: NYPD Strikes Again! Photos Surface Of A Pregnant Woman Being Put In A Chokehold
Rev. Al Sharpton has called for criminal charges to be brought against the cop that killed Eric. The Huffington Post reports that he believes the illegal manuever is disproportionately used on people of color.
“[The Staten Island District Attorney] needs to say, ‘I’m moving forward to an arrest’ or ‘I’m deferring to the federal government,” Al told a crowd gathered outside of his office in Harlem on Friday.
Eric’s widow, Esaw Garner, made a much more personal plea stating, “I just want them to do the right thing and give me justice for my husband.”
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