Why is the death of George Floyd different? Why was this video suddenly pushed into the spotlight, and not the dozens of other videos of police brutality?
On 17 July 2014 the 6 ft 3 in, 350-pound big, black Eric Garner (I wouldn’t call this a giant) was approached by a plainclothes cop in New York, supposedly for illegally selling single cigarettes, who tells him to move away.
Garner doesn’t behave aggressive, but is obviously annoyed over being harassed over and over again by the boys in blue. He replies:
Get away [garbled] for what? Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today. Why would you...? Everyone standing here will tell you I didn't do nothing. I did not sell nothing. Because every time you see me, you want to harass me. You want to stop me [garbled] selling cigarettes. I'm minding my business, officer, I'm minding my business. Please just leave me alone. I told you the last time, please just leave me alone.
In the following video you can see the conversation. After backup arrives at about 1:20 the police attack him. Police officer Daniel Pantaleo brings Garner down by applying a chokehold (even then Garner doesn’t react aggressive in return). After Garner has been brought down his face his put on the pavements and he repeats "
I can't breathe[/I]":
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-videoHere’s a subsequent 7 minute video, where you can see that Garner doesn’t move; I think he is already dead. His eyelids open a few times – dead eyes. After being put on the stretcher (to bring him to the ambulance) the cops say that he’s breathing:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/19/new-video-purports-to-show-aftermath-of-the-chokehold-that-led-to-eric-garners-death/I’d say that Garner had good reasons to be annoyed over being harassed. He had been arrested by the NYPD more than 30 times since 1980 on trumped up charges. Numerous of these arrests had been for allegedly selling unlicensed cigarettes (is that a really great crime?).
In 2007, Garner filed a handwritten complaint in federal court accusing a cop for "
digging his fingers in my rectum in the middle of the street" and also exposing and searching his
****, even when he agreed to be searched in a private location (why is the police only interested in men?).
The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide. According to the coroner Garner died due to a combination of a chokehold, compression of his chest, and poor health.
NYPD policy prohibits the use of chokeholds. On 4 December 2014 the grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo.
Pantaleo was eventually fired on 19 August 2019, more than five years after Garner was killed.
In October 2014, Garner's family announced their intention to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of New York, they settled the case for $5.9-million on 13 July 2015:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Eric_GarnerThe man that taped the murder of Eric Garner with his cell phone – Ramsey Orta – was subsequently repeatedly harassed by the cops. He was arrested a mere 3 weeks later, because he had talked to a teenager with a gun and a small amount of weed.
In our wonderful legal system that’s clear evidence that Orta gave the gun to the teenager.
In 2016, Ramsey Orta was sentenced to 4 years in prison:
https://www.activistpost.com/2016/10/ramsey-orta-guy-filmed-eric-garners-death-sentenced-4-years-prison.html