Edge of justice

After hearing all the evidence, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, the judge in the administrative hearing of Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, has come to the only reasonable conclusion: Because Pantaleo engaged in a banned chokehold while arresting Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, an action that contributed to Garner’s death, he should be dismissed from the NYPD.

Over the next few weeks, Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill should affirm that recommendation.

It is outrageous it has taken so long for a decision on discipline to be reached. For that obscene delay, lay some blame at the feet of the U.S. Department of Justice. Under two presidential administrations and five attorneys general, it remained undecided over whether to bring civil rights charges.

But save plenty ire for Mayor de Blasio, who knew full well the bar at the DOJ was high —

the feds have to be able to prove intent to deny a victim’s civil rights — and who should’ve seen the writing on the wall, as Washington sent signal after signal that prosecution was unlikely.

Yet he waaaaaaaiiiited, inventing the excuse that the Justice Department demanded the city’s deference. (It was only a request.)

De Blasio, fittingly, now finds himself hoist on his own progressive petard by activists who want Pantaleo fired forthwith, never mind following NYPD procedure.

No can do. It’s wrong the process took this long to begin, but once it did, it must play out. It is O’Neill’s responsibility, not de Blasio’s, to make the call, by the book. If the mayor appears to be unduly influencing him, Pantaleo has great fodder for a wrongful termination case.

This was a tragedy, not a crime. Still, use of a banned technique while initiating an arrest contributed to a needless loss of life. That is a firing offense.