Arnold Arnez

23 / 14
AP US History PD#5
Research Assignment

12 /
2nd MP

NYT Protests After Grand Jury Doesnt Indict Officer in Eric Garner
Chokehold Case
By J. DAVID GOODMAN and AL BAKERDEC. 3, 2014

The article by the New York Times deals with the situation concerning Eric
Garner, who was chocked to death by an officer with 8 years on the force in
Staten Island, for selling Loose Cigarettes out on the streets. The decision
came out with the decision to not indict Daniel Pantaleo on any charges
concerning the reported homicide in July of 2014. This having angered many
in the Black and others in New York City, especially having come out one
week after the decision not to indict Darren Wilson for his involvement and
homicide of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, over violence by police
officers against minority communities. The result is that many have gone to
the streets as a means of expressing the anger that has been built up with
the turbulent relations that the police have had with the Black Community.
This is many ways seems to be an inevitable response to the situation
that has occurred in Ferguson and New York City, with violence being
committed against the Black Community.
This would be so because of the relation that seems to grow unstable as the
historical structure and broader societal role that the police have played in
keeping communities down inevitably results with a social antagonism of
Black People have with those in civil and political society. The structure of the
law seems to play the most significant role to maintain the legitimacy of the

decisions being made in what is seen as being against the interest of the
greater constituency, for the law is made to be seen as neutral. The reaction
by the now deceased Mrs.Garner to the apology given by Officer Pantaleo
was Hell, no, . . . Hes still feeding his kids, . . . and my husband is six feet
under and Im looking for a way to feed my kids now. In this way, the act of
not indicting the officer must assume that there will be wider socio-political
repercussions, by the people and those personally affected by this decision.
This as well come out because the final proverbial nail in the coffin, with the
Garner familys welfare being disregarded as a mute personal point that has
no purpose in this discussion, yet when the two officers who were recently
killed are discussed, they were seen as martyrs and talking about them
without mention of their family becomes cruel and heartless.
My opinion here is also seen within the analysis of the political
message which the article entails in many ways. It is that I view the act of
not-indicting Officer Pantaleo is in many ways as criminal and hypocritical as
the act of justifying a police officer justifying a false accusation of a suspect
as the culprit, its blatant violence and falls into the spectrum of racist. Its
racist because it upholds a flawed conduct that targets minorities, and puts a
precedent that a white dominated enforcement service, the Police, can be
above the law at the cost of anyones lives, especially those who are
disenfranchised racially and socio-economically.