The only person indicted over Eric Garner's death was the guy who filmed it
Officer used a hold banned by the NYPD in 1993
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Remarkably, the video of unarmed black man Eric Garner being choked to death by Daniel Pantaleo didn't lead to the indictment of the police officer, yet the man who filmed it is now in prison.
The world was stunned today as a Staten Island grand jury decided Pantaleo did not act improperly when he placed Garner, whom he believed to be selling untaxed cigarettes, in a chokehold which caused him to plead "I can't breathe" before dying shortly after.
The incident was caught on camera and quickly went viral.
The man who filmed it, Ramsey Orta, was arrested in August a month after the tragedy for allegedly concealing a handgun in a teenage accomplace's waistband outside a New York hotel.
He testified that police brought the charges in retaliation to his dissemination of the Eric Garner video, but the grand jury ignored him, indicting him on multiple firearm charges.
Garner was the latest in a series of killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in the US this year that have not seen prosecutions, following on from Michael Brown whose death caused riots in Ferguson, Missouri.
It is incredibly rare for a grand jury not to return an indictment (according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, of the 162,000 federal cases US attorneys prosecuted in 2010 grand juries only declined to return an indictment in 11 of them), but the data tells a very different story when it is police officers in the dock.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments