Will there ever be justice?
Ican’t say exactly why I was so devastated by yet another police murder, especially since they have become so common across this nation.
Unlike many others, I haven’t been able to watch the video of George Floyd’s last moments and I have no intention of doing so.
The last taped death of a black man I watched was in July of 2014 when Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold on national television by Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Staten Island, N.Y. I believe he was murdered.
I was left overwhelmed with disbelief and a deep sense of grief watching Pantaleo press Eric’s face into the concrete while he gasped for breath. The fatal chokehold applied so much force, the coroner said it caused internal bleeding in his neck that led to a fatal asthmatic and heart attack.
I couldn’t believe someone could be so callous toward another human being.
I couldn’t imagine how his family endured seeing that moment captured on video played over and over on national TV.
I wondered then if the media considered his family and here we are six years later doing it all over again.
The death of George Floyd has caused the resurfacing of the emotional residue left from Eric Garner’s death. As I watched that video, I saw a deep sense of hate and complete disregard for the humanity of this helpless black man. He was killed on July 17, 2014, and it took five years 1 Watch activist and organizer Barbara Fair speak about injustice, policing and more at greenwich time.com.
vbefore the officer responsible for his death was fired from the NYPD.
He earned a six-figure salary and lots of overtime each year during those five years he remained on the force.
It was just last year that the Department of Justice announced it would not charge the officer with a federal crime.
Following his death, Garner’s 27-year-old daughter, Erica, became an activist addressing police brutality and fought tenaciously for justice for her dad. She succumbed to a heart attack precipitated by an asthmatic episode in 2017.
Eric’s wife continues to fight to have the other officers charged who stood by and did nothing.
She is helping to pass the Eric Garner bill making holding an arrestee in a chokehold a misdemeanor crime.
New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has been hesitant to pass legislation unless it includes an exception in case officers’ lives are at risk. Since the death of George Floyd, he has said he is reconsidering its passage.
Many unarmed black men and women have been killed by police since Eric Garner, yet now we are faced with another death of a black man by a police officer on national television.
Similarities in both deaths include fellow officers who failed to intervene to prevent the death of a citizen.
Both were fathers of young children.
Both pleaded for their lives with their final words being “I can’t breathe.”
Both killers showed callous disregard for human life. Both killers had a long history of police brutality prior to the senseless deaths.
Both men were unarmed. Both were being taken into custody for minor offenses. Both men’s deaths set off national protest.
And both deaths have reinforced the perception that black lives are devalued in America.
When does it end — and will there ever be justice for a black life stolen by those who are paid to protect and serve?