One year later: Eric Garner’s death led to most active US protests since the 60s

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/17/one-year-ago-eric-garner-new-york

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One year ago on Friday, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old New Yorker and father of six affectionately known as “Big E”, died on a Staten Island sidewalk after New York police department officers placed the 350lb asthmatic man in a chokehold.

Vigils and protests remembering Garner will continue through the weekend as family members, friends and activists push for further police accountability reforms after his death spurred one of the most active years of protest since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Today makes a year of demanding justice one year ago we told the d.a to hand the case to the feds one year ago n still nothing hasbeen done

A video of Garner’s death filmed by a bystander served as a catalyst for a year of public scrutiny of police violence in minority communities.

Less than a month later, unarmed black teenager Michael Brown would be shot dead by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, and names of other black men killed by police were added to the tragic tally through the year: Freddie Gray, Tony Robinson, Walter Scott and 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

All of their deaths caused unrest, sometimes for weeks on end. All used the rallying cry “I can’t breathe”, an homage to Garner’s last words as he was held in a chokehold.

To address the growing public scrutiny surrounding the deaths, at least in New York, Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo last week issued an executive order naming the state’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman as the special prosecutor in charge of investigating police killings.

Cuomo’s executive order came days before the New York City comptroller announced a $5.9m settlement with the Garner family. Both came with pushback from law enforcement. The NYPD union president called the settlement “obscene” and New York’s district attorneys were not pleased to cede prosecutorial power to Schneiderman.

Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive

Nationwide, calls for police body cameras have abounded despite the prevalence of video in cases, like Garner’s, that have gone unprosecuted. A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the officer that put Garner in a chokehold. The prosecutor, Republican Dan Donovan, was later elected to Congress. Since Garner’s death, the NYPD has started a federally mandated body-camera pilot program.

“The policing practices that have caused the massive distrust among communities of color were decades in the making,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The reforms that we have seen to date, while certainly helpful and steps forward, are not nearly enough to achieve the culture shift that is so important.”

Her calls echo those of other activists, including that of Garner’s own daughter, Erica Garner, who has pushed for police accountability reform since her father’s death.

Speaking ahead of the anniversary of her father’s death, Erica Garner recalled the man she described as a doting, caring parent.

“We had good talks,” Garner told the Guardian. “My dad didn’t say much; what he did say was very important.”

The 24-year-old mother of a five-year-old girl said her father encouraged her to be a good mother, to stay in school, and then to seek a job.

“Just regular father stuff. Stuff that stuck with me,” she said. She has become a regular face at Black Lives Matter protests in New York following her father’s death.

The location of what is expected to be the biggest protest of the weekend, eastern district federal court in Brooklyn, highlights an ongoing demand from members of the Garner family: that federal civil rights charges be brought against the police and EMS workers involved in his death.

That protest will follow two vigils on Friday, one in Harlem hosted by Garner’s family, and a second in Brooklyn with the mothers and family members of victims of past New York police killings. On Sunday, three church services in nearby New Jersey are being held to remember Garner.