New York – The head of the New York Police Department’s recruit training says video shows that a restraint technique used on Eric Garner in 2014 “meets the definition of a chokehold.”
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Inspector Richard Dee testified Tuesday at Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s internal trial, nearly five years after Garner’s pleas of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry against police brutality.
Dee also says that coughing heard on the video indicates Garner’s breathing was restricted by the hold.
Dee says recruits are explicitly warned that chokeholds are banned and they’re instructed to disengage when they realize they’re using a chokehold.
Pantaleo is accused of hastening Garner’s death. His lawyer says the officer used an approved technique known as a “seat-belt hold.”
But Dee says there is no record of Pantaleo’s receiving training in that move.
Let the justice system base their findings on the truth. All I fear is that the outcome, whichever direction it goes, will be used as a basis for the African American community to take their anger to the streets, in violence that DiBlasio may well follow Dinkins, and excuse it. He won’t accept responsibility for damage or casualties, so he doesn’t care.
We need someone like Philadelphia Mayor Rizzo who warned (on the evening of the MLK assassination) that the curfew will be enforced by police instructed to shoot to kill. The tragic event went by without the violence and riots that just claimed more victims. And every mayor should learn from that.