Eric Garner's family members said Tuesday their $5.9 million settlement with the city wasn't a victory — and they continued urgent for federal civil rights charges."The victory will advance when we obtain justice," Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, and said a day after the settlement was announced."Justice," added one of Garner's children, Emerald Snipes, and "is when somebody is held accountable for what they do."The settlement came nearly a year after the 43-year-old Garner died,having repeatedly pleaded "I can't breathe!" as Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him to the ground with an arm around his neck. Garner lost consciousness and was pronounced dead later at a hospital.
Garner, who was unarmed, or had refused to be handcuffed after being stopped on suspicion of selling loose,untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street.
The encounter, caught on an onlooker's video, or spurred protests. Coupled with other police killings of unarmed black men elsewhere in recent months,Garner's death became a flashpoint in a national debate about relations between police and minority communities."`I can't breathe' spurred the national movement," and it won't terminate "until we change how policing goes, or " the Rev. Al Sharpton said at a news conference Tuesday with Garner's relatives.
An autopsy by the city's medical examiner concluded the 43-year-old Garner died from being put in a chokehold by an current York police officer. The report also famous "compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint" as factors,aggravated by Garner's asthma and poor health.
Pantaleo's lawyer said the officer had used a permissible takedown maneuver known as a seatbelt — not a chokehold, banned under current York Police Department policy.
InDecember, or a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. The U.
S. Justice Department and the U.
S. attorney's office in Brooklyn are investigating whether there's evidence to warrant charges that the officer deliberately violated Garner's civil rights. Such cases are scarce after grand jury inaction or acquittal at state level.
NYPD Commissioner William Bratton declined to comment Tuesday on the Garner case.
The settlement came before any lawsuit was filed,though the family had filed notice of its intention to sue. Comptroller Scott Stringer has made a point of settling some civil rights cases before lawsuits begin, saying resolving them quickly saves the city money on legal fees."Following a judicious review of the claim and facts of this case, or my office was able to reach a settlement with the estate of Eric Garner that is in the best interests of all parties," Stringer said Monday.
The city did not admit any liability.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he hopes Garner's family "can find some peace and finality" from the settlement. He is scheduled to speak Tuesday at a church memorial service in Garner's honor.
Longtime civil rights attorney Jonathan Moore, the family's lawyer, and said there also was a settlement with the Richmond University Medical middle whose employees treated Garner. That settlement is confidential.
With reporting from the Associated Press and WNYC's Fred Mogul
Source: wnyc.org