Five years later, there are finally some consequences.
New York City’s police commissioner James O’Neill announced today that the officer who physically seized and took down Eric Garner on tape, leading to his death, has been fired.
Just weeks after the federal government announced it would not pursue federal civil rights charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials, Rosemarie Maldonado, ruled that Pantaleo’s “use of a prohibited chokehold was reckless and constituted a gross deviation from the standard of conduct established for a New York City police officer.”
O’Neill said the NYPD agreed with Maldonado’s findings after investigating what was an impossible situation.
“No one believes that officer Pantaleo got out of bed on July 17, 2014, thinking he would make choices and take actions during an otherwise routine arrest that lead to another person’s death. But officer’s choices and actions even made under extreme pressure matter,” O’Neill said during a press conference on Monday. “It is unlikely that Mr. Garner thought he was in such poor help health that a brief struggle with the police would lead to his death. He should have decided against resisting arrest, but a man with a family lost his life. And that is an irreversible tragedy. And a hard-working police officer with a family and a man that took this job to do good, to make a difference in his home community has now lost his chosen career. And that is different kind of tragedy.”
O’Neill’s conclusion is the right one: Garner’s death was unnecessary and could have been prevented. Video footage proves Pantaleo responded aggressively to a citizen who was not physically threatening him over a crime (selling loose cigarettes) that was not posing an imminent harm to anyone nearby. Pantaleo continued to hold him in an illegal chokehold, pressing his head into the concrete as Garner repeatedly cried, “I can’t breathe.” As I wrote last month, you don’t have to buy into the race-baiting mantra that Black Lives Matter activists are selling to understand that there is a line between necessary force and extreme aggression, and police do sometimes cross it.
O’Neill’s reasoning is also correct. Political pressure could very well have played a large role in the NYPD’s decision to fire Pantaleo. Mayor Bill de Blasio was confronted about Eric Garner’s death on stage during the second presidential primary debate. But it wasn’t rooted in anti-law enforcement sentiment, as New York’s police union suggests. O’Neill understands what he asks of his officers. They enter demanding situations every day and are forced to make tough decisions that average citizens just can’t understand. No officer is perfect: lapses in judgment abound in every department across the country. But Pantaleo’s decision resulted in the death of a citizen.
“In this case, the unintended consequence of Mr. Garner’s death must have a consequence of its own,” O’Neill said.
Now that the city’s officials have closed Garner’s case, they should focus on supporting the officers they trust to protect and defend NYC and its laws. The city, which houses the largest municipal police department in the country, has experienced a dramatic rise in hostility toward law enforcement over the past few years. Just last month, several officers were dogged by young men who dumped water on them while a crowd of spectators watched and laughed. Nine NYPD officers have committed suicide in the past year. NYC has a crisis on its hands, and the city must take responsibility and do something about it.
Luckily, cases like Garner’s are rare. Most officers are good men and women willing to put their lives on the line in service to the people they protect. The NYPD’s decision to fire Pantaleo was an important step toward justice that should inspire reform. But it should also inspire in each of us gratitude for the men and women who uphold the rule of law courageously and quietly, exercising good judgment as they do so.
