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Five years after Eric Garner's "I can not breathe" call to death became the rallying cry against police brutality across the country, the police officer who killed him was fired.
New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill announced Monday that New York Police Constable Daniel Pantaleo had been fired. O'Neill terminated 34-year-old Pantaleo after he was found to have violated department policy by preventing Garner from being stranded by a banned stranglehold in 2014.
"It's clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer be a police officer," O'Neill said.
A judge had previously recommended the termination of Pantaleo following an internal disciplinary trial. The judge, a deputy commissioner, concluded that Pantaleo had been "lying" in interviews with investigators and had "imprudently used force" during the fatal encounter.
Pantaleo had so far not been subject to any official sanction for his actions, having been put in post. In July, the Justice Ministry refused to accuse Pantaleo of violating Garner's civil rights. In 2014, a grand jury from Staten Island refused to charge Pantaleo.
O'Neill's decision is the final act of a long legal and political drama about the fate of Pantaleo, who personified for many critics what they say is the overly aggressive police of the New York Police Force, including the killing of unarmed blacks like Garner.
On July 17, 2014, NYPD agents confronted Garner at the corner of a Staten Island street after allegedly selling "loose" plain cigarettes, prohibited by law.
Garner, 43, tried to get away from surrounding police before Pantaleo used a choking action banned by New York police since 1993, police said. A video of a friend's meeting with Garner shows Pantaleo holding Garner in a hug for several seconds, even after the two men fall.
Garner shouted "I can not breathe" 11 times during the choking, as the police pressed him on the sidewalk. But it was only after hearing Garner's requests that the police called an ambulance. The paramedics waited several minutes before giving oxygen to Garner.
Garner's death was pronounced shortly after his arrival at a local hospital, as a result of what the city's medical examiner had called a "lethal cascade of events" started by the strangulation of Pantaleo and ending with cardiac arrest. Death was judged a homicide.
His assassination immediately galvanized the nascent Black Lives Matter movement, demanding transparency and accountability from the police and prompting consideration of how the police engage with residents.
Immediately after the video went viral, thousands of protesters occupied parks and highways across the city with placards bearing Garner's face and slogans saying "I can not breathe." A few weeks later, Garner's infamous death was accompanied by the rage of the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Garner's family is publicly dedicated to holding the police accountable since his death.
Gwen Carr, Garner's mother, became a central figure in the Black Lives Matter movement, tirelessly urging elected officials and police to fire all agents involved in her son's death and criticizing what she called a subsequent attempt by concealment of systematic misconduct.
Garner's 27-year-old daughter, Erica, participated in several "murders" during shootings against protest officers and became one of the central figures in favor of a justice reform. criminal. She died in 2017 from a heart attack.
The family received $ 5.9 million from the city to pay an undue death claim in 2015.
The road leading to Pantaleo's firing began this spring during a disciplinary hearing in the department.
At the non-criminal trial, prosecutors said during the hearing that Garner was trying to prevent the police from arresting him and did not pose a threat. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Pantaleo had used a takedown technique for which he had not been trained and when it went wrong: Pantaleo shook hands around Garner's neck instead of release.
"Eric Garner did not touch any of these officers. There were three other officers who did not use the strangulation, "said Attorney General Jonathan Fogel, Civil Complaints Committee representative, at the beginning of the hearing in May. "This officer did not let go even after the fall of Mr. Garner. When he closed his hands, it became more than reckless. "
Pantaleo's defense team, however, claimed that Garner's death was the result of pre-existing health problems such as obesity and asthma, despite the discovery of the homicide of the medical examiner. They also argued that Pantaleo had used the authorized tactics to subdue Garner after objecting to his arrest.
NYPD Chief Justice Rosemarie Maldonado concluded in her 46-page post-trial opinion that Pantaleo should be fired for using the reckless chokehold that killed Garner and lying to investigators. (His opinion was first published by the New York Times).
The judge said that Pantaleo's repeated denials about the use of the move were "both implausible and selfish" after watching the video of the incident. The starter, she said, "was so inadequate that the court found it irresponsible – a flagrant departure from the established standard of conduct for a New York City police officer" .
Last week, the decision was passed from Maldonado to first deputy commissioner Benjamin Tucker, second in the department. Tucker accepted the decision to fire Pantaleo and sent his recommendation to O Neill's office on Friday.
The union representing Pantaleo has scheduled a press conference at 2 pm The union officials claimed that Pantaleo had used a legal maneuver, had become the scapegoat of a movement and had "done nothing wrong".
Garner's death and national criticism of his subsequent assassination long haunted other New York officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio. In July, protesters twice disrupted the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit to protest Blasio's cry of "Fire Pantaleo!
After the administrative judge had recommended Aug. 2 to end Pantaleo, de Blasio said at a press conference that a measure of justice had finally been passed on to Garner's family. He also accused the Ministry of Justice of having tied the hands of the city for years to determine the fate of Pantaleo. The investigation of the Ministry of Justice concerned two administrations, before finally making the decision not to indict Pantaleo in July, one day before the expiration of the limitation period.
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