What really killed Eric Garner

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Brooklyn: Eric Garner refused to comply with the NYPD officers’ commands. He acted aggressively and began yelling “This ends today!” I find it unbelievable how his supporters ignore these facts in the video evidence. His proclamation of “This ends today!” was a thinly veiled threat which could have meant a variety of things, especially when coupled with his aggressiveness and repeated refusals to comply.

I also see no evidence in the video footage that shows Officer Daniel Pantaleo was intentionally trying to kill or harm Garner. I saw an officer much smaller than Garner trying to keep control of Garner by use of a chokehold. The officer has no idea at the time if Garner is armed or not. What he does know is Garner is refusing orders.

I do feel that Garner’s death is a tragedy. But I feel it was accidental and in no way intentional. Had Garner complied, he would not have had to have been taken to the ground physically. I am sick and tired of these protests throughout the United States from people complaining about cops shooting armed citizens who refuse to comply with the commands of cops. Tired of hearing these ridiculous claims that cops should shoot an armed person holding a gun or knife in their hand or arm! That is Hollywood nonsense.

Eric Garner knew he was breaking the law but chose to keep going out in the street to sell untaxed cigarettes. He knew there was a high probability that he would be confronted by cops. He chose to ignore this. Jamie Connor

Bill betrayed us

Brooklyn: Good job by the Daily News Editorial Board (“Shameful dishonesty,” Aug. 2), but to fully understand the betrayal by Mayor de Blasio, you must read Eric Garner, in his own hand, writing from Rikers Islands, during the terms of Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. I voted for de Blasio hoping for change! De Blasio betrayed our votes and Garner! De Blasio and Al Sharpton are not sharing what “it stops today” really means! Garner explained as if from the grave! Suzannah Troy

Cops killed him

Oakland, N.J.: As always, PBA President Pat Lynch wants us to believe that should-befired officer Daniel Pantaleo didn’t choke Eric Garner to death, even though everyone can see plain as day that Pantaleo choked Garner to death. I’d be happy to put Lynch in the same chokehold so we can see how long it takes before he’s gasping for air or crying for help. I’d promise to let Lynch go instead of killing him. Bob Shwalb

Comply with orders

Brooklyn: Mayor de Blasio sneered at the debate when

he was interrupted by shouts of “Fire Pantaleo.” The ultraliberal lunatics who yelled this out conveniently forget that Eric Garner would have survived had he just obeyed the police orders. Instead, he chose not to. This entire situation stems from the fact that he probably thought he was back in middle school where anything goes. Parents must teach their children to respect and obey authoritative figures whether they are police or teachers. The continued lack of respect will only lead to more situations similar to this one. Ed Greenspan

Inconvenient truth

Lynbrook, L.I.: I am a retired transit police sergeant. How do you bring down a big man who refuses to cooperate? Sing him a lullaby? Play patty cake? No, you use necessary force to affect an arrest as Officer Daniel Pantaleo did.

Larry Lombardo

With our own eyes

Lake Worth, Fla.: To those who suggest Daniel Pantaleo was fully justified: We all saw the video. Did you? We all heard the audio. Did you? Did you not hear Eric Garner say “I can’t breathe” 11 times? The footage shows, without question, that the NYPD did absolutely nothing to deescalate the situation once Garner was on the ground and immobilized. They kept choking him. The fact that Drumpf-appointed U.S. attorneys chose to ignore this, and the enabler at the head of the DOJ went along with it, is a travesty. I lived on Staten Island for over 40 years and was living there at that time. I can tell you, that this will not soon be forgotten.

Judith Levine

Agents of influence

Bronx: Voicer Regina Mangan believes that the four American women of color in Congress known as “The Squad” are foreign government moles who hate this country and have bad intentions. It’s a known fact that Agent Orange was elected to the presidency with help from the Russian government. Now, who’s the mole? Jonathan Solomon

Education in hypocrisy

Brooklyn: Let me get this straight: for all these years, Mayor de Blasio on one hand stays basically silent about yeshivas, which don’t provide their students with a proper education (or vaccinations), but on the other hand rails against charter schools, which produce students who academically excel? You don’t need to be a math major to see that something doesn’t add up here! Joe Ferra

Driven crazy

Flushing: City road repair planners should look around at what’s happening to to our everyday traffic. It’s at a point where you just don’t want to drive anymore. Closing lanes causes hours of back-ups. If that’s what needed to make repairs, schedule different times, now that it’s summer, while more people are on vacation. I’m fed-up, parking my vehicle and driving at midnight. Marty Polsky

Big bad Don

Staten Island: The stable genius who sits in the White House and launches Twitter attacks all day said that he is “the least racist person there is in the world” while talking to a gaggle of reporters. Since he has tweeted/said ad nauseum that he is the smartest person, who knows more about anything than pretty much everyone, and he is the best at everything he does, I am perplexed. Was that statement to the reporters just another lie, thus making him the best racist there is?

Marsha Korot

Give respect

Manhattan: I might start to care about the problems of cyclists in the city when and if they stop riding on the sidewalk, going the wrong way on one-way streets, disobeying other traffic regulations and cursing at me after they have blown through a red light and almost hitting me as I was crossing in the crosswalk with a walk sign.

C. Schoenberg

Hot little numbers

East Brunswick, N.J.: Why does the New York Lottery require the women who call the numbers on TV to strike a pose, and then use a voice that sounds like a preschool teacher sucking helium? Are they auditioning for the “Magic Garden” reboot? I envision their boss being an old man who smacks them on the butt and calls them “doll.”

Lisa Maniaci