The Death of Eric Garner – Was His Death Caused By Police Brutality?
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was in Staten Island, New York, when he was questioned by a pair of undercover NYPD officers on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes.
During the questioning, Garner stated that he was not selling cigarettes, and also that he was tired of being harassed by the police. He told them that the harassing was going to end today. When the police moved in to arrest Garner, he resisted and continued claiming his innocence. At that point Officer Daniel Pantaleo moved behind Garner, wrapped his arms around Garner’s neck and shoulders, and used a submission hold to help subdue the suspect. Eric Garner was 6’3″ tall and weighed 350 pounds.
As Eric Garner fell to the ground, he continued resisting and more police officers swarmed over him, trying to hold him still so they could handcuff his arms behind his back. At that point in time Pantaleo had moved his arms, but he still had one of his arms wrapped around Garner’s neck in an alternate submission hold. He immediately releases this hold when Garner’s free arm is finally cuffed behind his back. When that happens Garner stated the words, “I can’t breathe.”
The arrest was recorded on video, and it has been posted online for the world to view.
The arrest video of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014.
At 1:20 in the video you can clearly see Officer Pantaleo wrap his arms around Garner’s neck and shoulder. Garner is then wrestled to the ground. Ten seconds later at 1:30 you can see that Officer Pantaleo has his left arm wrapped around Garner’s neck in a slightly different hold than the one he used a moment ago. That second hold is released a few seconds later when Garner is rolled onto his right side and his right arm is finally cuffed behind his back. While his arm is being cuffed, Eric Garner is on his stomach, officers are holding him against the ground (using their hands and knees to press against his head, chest, and torso). That’s when he utters the words, “I can’t breathe.”
The ending of the video shows that Eric Garner became unconscious just after being handcuffed. The final scenes show him lying on his side as officers keep an eye on him while waiting for paramedics.
After the arrest and waiting for the paramedics.
A second video shows the aftermath of the arrest as Eric Garner lies unconscious and the police just stand around, waiting for the paramedics. It’s clear that the police don’t show much concern while they’re waiting for the paramedics to arrive. When medical help arrives, the female paramedic checks for a pulse, and she doesn’t show any concern or urgency. A team of officers then lifts the unconscious Eric Garner onto a stretcher, and that’s when the video ends.
Depending on which news article that you read, Eric Garner died either in the ambulance or inside of the hospital. Either way, he died within an hour of being arrested by the police.
Were the police officers responsible for Eric Garner’s death?
That’s a question that a bunch of people are asking today.
When you watch the video, it’s clear that the police used an aggressive submission hold to restrain Eric Garner. He was a big guy, he was resisting arrest, and it was going to take a lot of muscle to subdue and arrest him. Eric Garner was unarmed and the police used their hands to wrestle and handcuff him. He was not beaten, he was not tasered, he was not sprayed with pepper spray, and he was not shot. The officers used non-lethal techniques to arrest him.
But did the submission holds used by Officer Daniel Pantaleo directly or indirectly cause the death of Eric Garner? When the officers pinned him to the ground, did that contribute to Eric Garner’s death?
According to the autopsy report (at least, what I’ve read of other people’s analysis of the report as I still cannot find a copy of it online), Eric Garner died from a variety of factors from the way he was positioned face down on the pavement to his medical problems that included asthma, obesity and heart disease. Some people claim that his death was actually caused by a heart attack or a hemorrhage in his neck. What is known is that Eric Garner did not die of asphyxiation,and there was NO damage to his windpipe or neck bones. He was NOT choked to death.
The responsibility of whether or not Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s actions were responsible for contributing to the death of Eric Garner was sent to the grand jury. The grand jury watched several videos that recorded the incident, they listened to all of the witnesses, and they analyzed all of the evidence related to the arrest and the death of Garner. On December 3, 2014 the grand jury released its decision —- NO indictment for Officer Daniel Pantaleo.
The grand jury’s decision was made about a week after the grand jury in Fergusen, Missouri, did not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. People had been protesting around the country because of the situation in Ferguson, and now the protests have shifted and become in support of Eric Garner.
Just what is a chokehold?
I’m wondering if the lack of indictment was because of a technicality in the NYPD’s definition of a chokehold.
Chokeholds are martial arts grips that are designed to restrict or stop either the flow of air or blood through a person’s neck. If either style is applied for too long, then the person being choked will fall unconscious and ultimately die.
Chokeholds have two versions: air choke and blood choke. Either version can be applied in dozens of different ways.
An air choke is a type of grip or hold that compresses the upper airway and interferes with a person’s ability to breathe. Although it usually takes a few moments before a person finally passes out from a lack of air, this type of choke hold is normally very dangerous. If the windpipe is blocked or crushed during the chokehold, there’s a danger that it’ll stay damaged when the choke is stopped, and the person being choked may suffocate and die.
A blood choke is a type of grip or hold that restricts the flow of blood through a person’s neck. When you press and stop the flow of blood through the carotid arteries and/or the jugular veins, blood cannot flow to or from the brain, and a person will lose consciousness very quickly, often with a few seconds of the choke being correctly applied. Blood chokes are typically very effective and they don’t require a lot of strength to administer, making them an effective technique for a smaller person to fight against a larger or stronger person. Arteries and veins are typically flexible and they normally pop open once the blood choke submission hold is released.
Blood chokes are commonly used in law enforcement as they are very effective and generally safe to administer, as long as blood is not restricted to the brain for too long. This type of move is normally known in law enforcement as a lateral vascular neck restraint.
When you watch the video of Officer Daniel Pantaleo gripping Eric Garner around the shoulder and neck, there’s no question that he’s using a form of a chokehold. The police department called the particular grip that Officer Pantaleo used a “seat belt maneuver,” though it’s still a blood choke in the end. When Eric Graner falls to the pavement, you can clearly see Officer Pantaleo using a different blood choke by keeping his entire arm wrapped around Garner’s neck. That applied pressure on Garner’s carotid arteries helped subdue him. The different chokehold also added the threat of becoming an air choke should Garner have turned his head (which he did not during that part of the arrest).
Anyway, according to the Breitbart article, the NYPD definies a chokehold as “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.” This means that the NYPD does NOT consider blood chokes as forms of chokeholds, thus making them a legal method of subduing a criminal.
Could that have been the technicality that prevented Officer Daniel Pantaleo from being indicted in the death of Eric Garner? All because of a technicality where the NYPD does not consider blood chokes as a form of chokehold, thereby making his method of subduing the resisting man a legal police procedure even though Garner died less than an hour later?
Do the protesters have a valid case?
It’s easy to see how the protesters could have become confused in the terminology during this ordeal.
More importantly, it’s very easy to take a quick look at the video and believe that Eric Garner was choked to death by the police department, even though it’s clear that was NOT the case once you look closer and learn how the submission holds work. But that requires doing research. It’s a lot easier to just go around and blame the death of Garner on police brutality and/or racism. After all, Eric Garner was black while the police officers in the video were all white.
Which way do you think that the media and talking heads would spin this story?
We know that Eric Garner had problems breathing while he was being arrested. We also know that the NYPD banned chokeholds back in 1993, though according to the Breitbart article that ban was technically for AIR chokes and not BLOOD chokes. In the video it’s clear that Officer Pantaleo was choking Eric Garner, but he was using a blood choke and NOT an air choke. That was proven in the autopsy report.
So when you combine all of that and don’t bother to do any research on your own, it clearly looks like a case of police brutality. To make matters even more complicated, this looks to be a case of police brutality involving WHITE police officers and a BLACK suspect who was arrested and seemingly killed.
My gut feeling is that the police were being too aggressive in this situation.
The police were questioning Eric Garner because of his role in allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, something that the police department stepped up in enforcing this year. This is actually a display of big government being more aggressive about collecting taxes from the citizens, but that’s a subject for another day. Garner himself has a long history with problems with law enforcement as he had been arrested over 30 times since he was a teenager. Being questioned and arrested by the police was nothing new with Eric Garner as he was a career criminal. Of course, according to his friends and colleagues, Garner was a “gentle giant,” just as people labeled Michael Brown.
So here he was outside of a store and he was being questioned yet again by the police department. Some people claim that Garner had recently threatened a store owner about either selling his untaxed cigarettes, or wanted to use the store’s customers as his cigarette customers, and that the store owner had called the police. Other people claim that Eric Garner was outside and stopping two people from fighting, and that’s why the police were called to the scene. However, according to most news reports, it was an undercover police officer who spotted Eric Garner selling untaxed cigarettes, and that’s what ultimately led to his arrest.
It’s clear in the arrest video that Eric Garner was resisting arrest. That itself is a crime and it’ll only lead to the police being more aggressive with you, and the judicial system throwing another charge or two when you’re finally booked. The truth is that resisting arrest only leads to more problems, whether you were innocent or guilty of whatever crime they accused you of committing.
What makes this case different is that Eric Garner was using PASSIVE RESISTANCE, and he was not a threat to the police officers or their safety. Nor was Garner trying to flee. That’s very different compared to Michael Brown’s ACTIVE RESISTANCE where he violently attacked Officer Wilson and then charged him again.
Since Eric Garner was only passively resisting the police and more annoying them than anything, were the police justified in using a chokehold and the swarm technique when finally arresting him?
That’s up to the jury to decide.
When a police officer decides to arrest you for whatever reason, there’s a very short time frame in which you’re expected to comply. Each passing second where you resist or delay the arrest, the police only become more irritated and more aggressive. It’s just a matter or time before they make a physical move to arrest you, whether it’s a tackle, a type of submission hold, spraying you with pepper spray / mace, using a taser, or drawing a gun and holding you at gunpoint. Granted, pulling a gun is the last thing that an officer will do, but it’s still an option for dealing with an uncooperative suspect.
That’s what Eric Garner was —- uncooperative. He verbally tried to stop the police from arresting him, and he passively moved around to try to stop or delay the officers. He wasn’t fighting back, nor was he cooperating. That’s when the police department stepped up their actions. Officer Daniel Pantaleo used a blood choke type of submission hold while the other officers wrestled Eric Garner to the ground. He was pinned to the ground, and he then had problems breathing and later fell unconscious. A short while later he died.
Did the police officers know about Eric Garner’s asthma? No.
Did the police officers know about Eric Garner’s heart disease? No.
Did the police department kill Eric Garner? Not directly. I believe it was a combination of aggressive police officers and Eric Garner’s health problems that caused his death, but not one form being more responsible than the other. None of those police officers wanted Eric Garner to die.
It’s possible that the restriction of blood flow during the choke hold caused a heart attack to occur. This could have been a situation where Eric Garner was more sensitive to conditions such as a sudden drop in blood pressure as caused by a blood choke. When the pressure was released and the blood flow restored, that could have caused the adrenal glands to kick in and cause his heart to go into overdrive, something very dangerous to a person with heart disease like he did.
Eric Garner might have had a heart attack which caused him to promptly lose consciousness when the police finally cuffed him. Difficulty in breathing is a common trait for those suffering a heart attack. He could have still been alive and breathing, but unconscious and in desperate need of medical attention. Without him being awake and able to tell the officers what was really happening, the officers and paramedics would have had a much harder time knowing that he was in serious trouble. All the police officers knew was that Garner was unconscious but still breathing, but they didn’t know why. Since he was still breathing they didn’t seem to be too concerned as the paramedics were only moments away.
Will the death of Eric Garner change law enforcement?
That’s a tough call.
In the video it looks like the police officers are being aggressive, but that’s nothing new. Whenever you see episodes of COPS or World’s Wildest Police Videos, it’s clear that when you resist arrest, the police WILL go into action. It’s a combination of the police officers’ training, their dedication to service (catching the criminals), and their own adrenaline caused by the situation. When watching the videos it’s also clear that the larger and/or more aggressive the suspect, then the more aggressive the response from the police department. Having five or six officers swarm a suspect and pin him to the ground is routine for dealing with violent and/or problematic suspects. Those techniques have been around for ages, and it’s likely that they’ll be around in the future.
If it’s later proven that the blood choke hold caused the death of Eric Garner, then it’s possible that some police departments will remove it from their subdue techniques. Of course, if that technique is removed, then it’ll force the officers to use alternate techniques such as pepper spray or mace, or the dreaded taser and stun gun. It’ll be way too easy for a criminal being arrested to suddenly have “breathing problems” and force the arresting officers to be more gentle, possibly allowing an angle for the criminal to make an escape.
If anything, it’s probable that this incident with the police versus Eric Garner will have police departments tone down the aggressiveness of their police officers, especially when the suspects are using passive resistance.