NEW YORK (AP) — The death of Eric Garner in police custody has roiled New York City, inflaming tensions between the NYPD and communities of color, and proving the biggest test yet of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first year in office.
De Blasio, a firm believer in community outreach, has now asked one of the city’s most revered figures to step in to provide some sort of comfort: Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
De Blasio called Dolan on Wednesday and asked him to hold a gathering of some of the city’s most influential religious leaders to help provide comfort to those touched by Garner’s death, The Associated Press has learned.
The mayor believes that the meeting — which will include Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders — can help a city gripped by protests, screaming tabloid headlines and the reawakening of a long-held distrust of the police in some of New York’s minority neighborhoods.
“There is a tremendous need for healing at this moment,” de Blasio said Friday. “And our faith leaders play a powerful role, not only at the pulpit but out in our communities, in bringing people back together.”
The gathering will be held later this month at one of the Catholic Church’s facilities once Dolan returns from a retreat to Australia. In a statement, Dolan said he believes the meeting can help “be a source of continued healing and reconciliation between our police force and the community it serves.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been a fiery critic of the NYPD in the wake of Garner’s death, is expected to attend. A message left for him at his National Action Network was not immediately returned.
Garner, an asthmatic father of six, was confronted by police on Staten Island last month for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. In an arrest captured on cellphone video, he was placed in a choke hold by a police officer and can be heard repeatedly screaming “I can’t breathe!”
Garner died a short time later. The city medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Two officers involved have been reassigned as the Staten Island District Attorney investigates. The DA has not issued a timetable for when he will make a decision on whether to bring charges.
The death has placed de Blasio, a Democrat, at the center of a debate in the city about the proper role of policing in the nation’s largest city. He was elected last year in part on a pledge to reach out to communities of color who feel unfairly targeted by police, yet he has also promised to continue New York’s historic drop in crime.
He has taken some criticism from both sides: while some liberal activists feel he has not done enough to condemn the death, the police unions have suggested that he is undermining rank-and-file cops by inviting Sharpton to City Hall to discuss the death.
The call to Dolan was the most recent in de Blasio’s efforts to personally reach out to community leaders who can help diffuse the tension surround the death; in the first hours after the video was released, the mayor called several Staten Island leaders and Sharpton.
De Blasio has also been an outspoken supporter of his police commissioner, William Bratton. Both men will attend Dolan’s meeting.
