July 22, 2015

Week-long protests mark Eric Garner anniversary in New York

editor:	Vanessa Ellingham

Last Friday marked one year since Eric Garner died in a police chokehold on Staten Island, New York.

Dozens of protestors have been arrested during a week of actions against continued police brutality, including banner drops, rallies and a march with more than 1000 participants.

The march was led by one of Garner's daughters, Erica, who told Animal New york: “It’s important to keep bringing actions to Staten Island because the police still haven’t reformed out there.”

The march charted many of the locations significant in the Eric Garner story, including the courthouse where the Grand Jury failed to indict Officer Pantaleo, to the NYPD’s 120th Precinct, where Pantaleo still works, to the spot where Garner died, just seven blocks away. At each location, and while taking the streets between them, Erica led protesters in chants of, “No Justice! No Peace,” and “Pantaleo Has To Go!”

The group dropped a banner on the Staten Island ferry reading "I can't breathe", Garner's last words captured on video as he struggled in the police chokehold.

One person arrested during a sit-in was Babbie Dunnington, for whom being arrested was a new experience. She explains:

“It is important to show our resistance to the fact that after a full year, Daniel Pantaleo has not even been fired. It exposes the injustice in our system: that cops can kill people on video and not get arrested, but if we block traffic for 30 seconds, we go straight to jail.”

To Babbie, the criminal justice system has not met the most basic demand of the Black Lives Matter movement. “A huge part of this movement is about police reform, but there have been many unjust police killings in the last year and very few indictments.”