Yo, Christie! Back in line!
A CIVILIAN police misconduct board is prepared to move forward with charges against the cop who killed Eric Garner — but the NYPD is blocking the move, his mother charged.
Gwen Carr said officials at the Civilian Complaint Review Board told her in a meeting that the department has used an administrative maneuver to block the case from proceeding against Daniel Pantaleo by refusing to issue a case number.
“We’re tired of waiting. We’ve been waiting for almost four years,” Carr said at a press conference outside City Hall Thursday.
“Waiting time is over, and we are demanding that (Mayor) de Blasio stop paying these officers,” she said. “I am just so, so appalled at him doing almost nothing.”
The Staten Island man died in 2014 after he was placed in a banned chokehold by Pantaleo, who was attempting to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. “I can’t breathe,” Garner could be heard saying in a chilling video of the incident.
In September, the review board substantiated misconduct allegations against the cop, finding his forbidden maneuver did indeed restrict Garner’s breathing and that the NYPD should impose its stiffest departmental charges, which could lead to Pantaleo being fired.
But the board cannot file a formal recommendation with the NYPD for charges without the case number, Garner’s mom and police reform advocates say. When the board recommends charges, it can serve as the prosecutor in an internal trial.
The de Blasio administration has said it won’t move forward with an internal trial until the federal Justice Department completes its own civil rights probe into the case.
A de Blasio spokesman blamed the feds for the delay, but stuck by the city’s stance that it won’t move until Justice does.
“We share the family’s frustration. This process has taken too long and we once again urge DOJ to reach a conclusion. Until then, it would be irresponsible for the city to take any preemptive action that could hurt any future prosecution,” said spokesman Austin Finan.
Advocates say there’s no reason the city needs to wait, noting other cities have fired cops accused of misconduct while federal investigations were underway.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-Staten Island).
“We find ourselves still standing here with Officer Pantaleo sitting at a desk collecting his city paycheck, and even getting overtime, while he has not been brought to abuse.”
Pantaleo pocketed around $40,000 in overtime pay during the first two years of his modified desk duty gig even though he was stripped of his gun and badge.
The feds started investigating the case after the Staten Island justice. This is an district attorney’s office failed to get a grand jury to indict Pantaleo.
The complaint review board declined to comment. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Carr clashed with members of her own family last week when she was barred from a Harlem funeral for Garner’s daughter.
Erica Garner, 27, an outspoken critic of police brutality in the wake of her father’s death, died last month after lapsing into a coma following an asthmainduced heart attack.
She left behind two children, a daughter, 8, and a son, 4 months. FORMER New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is learning that life as a private citizen is no day at the beach.
Cops at Newark Airport told him Thursday to wait on line like everybody else. The two-term Republican, who left office Tuesday, tried to go through an entrance he used for years, only to learn his VIP expectations were a flight of fancy.
Christie (photo) and his state trooper protection were directed to the Transportation Security Administration screening lines.
The order reportedly came from cops for the Port Authority, which operates the airport and George Washington Bridge — scene of the 2013 Bridgegate scandal that dogged the unpopular governor and helped sink his presidential bid.
Christie called the story “absolutely false” Thursday.
“NJSP (New Jersey state police) security detail & I were led to one entrance in the airport by PAPD officer. TSA informed PAPD and NJSP that this was the wrong way to enter and directed us to another entrance where I was screened & admitted to the airport,” he tweeted.
Two Christie aides engineered lane closures at the bridge in an alleged scheme to punish a Democratic mayor. Last summer, Christie came under fire again when a news photographer in a helicopter snapped him basking on a state beach that was closed to state residents during a government shutdown.