Police: Chokehold Victim Eric Garner Complicit In Own Death

NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Garner was overweight and in poor health. He was a nuisance to shop owners who complained about him selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. When police came to arrest him, he resisted. And if he could repeatedly say, "I can't breathe," it means he could breathe.

Rank-and-file New York City police officers and their supporters have been making such arguments even before a grand jury decided against charges in Garner's death, saying the possibility that he contributed to his own demise has been drowned out in the furor over race and law enforcement.

Eric Garner Protests Spread Across The Country; Police Arrest More Than 200 In NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Garner was overweight and in poor health. He was a nuisance to shop owners who complained about him selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. When police came to arrest him, he resisted. And if he could repeatedly say, "I can't breathe," it means he could breathe.

Rank-and-file New York City police officers and their supporters have been making such arguments even before a grand jury decided against charges in Garner's death, saying the possibility that he contributed to his own demise has been drowned out in the furor over race and law enforcement.

Chokehold Cop Is 'Eagle Scout' Blameless In Eric Garner's Death, NYPD Union President Says

The president of the NYPD’s largest police union said Thursday that the officer who put Eric Garner into a fatal chokehold is an Eagle Scout who shouldn’t be blamed for the death.

Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, did fault one person for the death: Eric Garner.

A Reminder Of How Heart-Wrenching Eric Garner's Last Words Were

They were heard in a video that went viral, plastered across the front page of newspapers and echoed through the chants of hundreds of protesters who mourned his death.

They were Eric Garner's last words -- the words the 43-year-old Staten Island man muttered while he was placed in a chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, which eventually led to Garner's untimely death: "I can't breathe."

The System That Failed Eric Garner and Michael Brown Cannot Be Reformed

That a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing 43-year-old Eric Garner the same week that President Obama proposed spending $75 million in federal money to outfit 50,000 police officers across the country with body cameras would seem to be hack Hollywood writing with neatly applied plot points. Garner’s death was caught on video—video that the police were aware was being taken—and it still was not enough to indict anyone, least of all the man responsible for choking Garner to death, for any type of wrongdoing. It’s as if this decision was handed to us at this time in order to get us to say, “Now what?”

Grand Jury Declines To Indict NYPD Officer In Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner

A grand jury in Staten Island voted Wednesday not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a chokehold.

Still No Charges 3 Months After Eric Garner's Chokehold Death

NEW YORK -- Chokeholds are dangerous and prohibited by the New York City Police Department. Yet on July 17, Officer Daniel Pantaleo wrapped his arm around the neck of Eric Garner, who had resisted arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island. In a viral video of the encounter, Garner can be heard repeatedly screaming, “I can’t breathe!” before his body goes still.

The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, and “I can’t breathe!” became a rallying cry at a massive protest against police brutality in Tompkinsville, the neighborhood where Garner -- who’d been caught on multiple occasions selling cigarettes illegally -- was arrested for the last time.