On July 17, NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put Eric Garner in a chokehold while others officers forced him to the ground and then stood by and watched him die - doing nothing while he said "I can't breathe" multiple times. At the end of September – more than two months later – Staten Island District Attorney Donovan finally convened a grand jury.

In Ferguson, the grand jury announced on November 24th that it would not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of 17-year-old Mike Brown. In NYC, there has not been full accountability of NYPD officers in any cases of police violence and murder since Eric Garner's death, and we at CCR understand that this is part of a national epidemic of police violence. As movement-minded people, we also know that one of the best ways we can express solidarity with other cities is to stand up for justice in our own.

CCR Executive Director Vince Warren issued the following statement this afternoon after the grand jury’s decision:

"How can anyone in the community have faith in the system now? First Ferguson, now Staten Island. The Grand Jury’s failure to indict sends the clear message that Black lives don’t matter. But they do. It’s bad enough that broken windows policing over something as harmless as selling untaxed cigarettes led to this tragic killing; it's even worse when the officer responsible – who was caught on tape using a prohibited choke hold, no less – is not held accountable. The problem isn’t one officer, though: it’s systemic. We need real reform of discredited broken windows policing and of the NYPD more than ever. With the court-ordered joint reform process in our class action stop-and-frisk case Floyd v. City of New York finally getting underway, we have that opportunity."

What: #ThisStopsToday Rally for Eric Garner
When: Thursday, December 4th at 5:30pm
Where: Foley Square (J/Z to Chambers, 4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge City Hall)

Follow @ThisStopsToday on Twitter, and come out to demand:

*An end to discriminatory Broken Windows policing abuses
*A DOJ Investigation into the use of force policies and practices of the NYPD
*Full accountability for all officers responsible for Eric’s death, and all officers who brutalize and abuse their power in our communities

#ThisStopsToday
#JusticeForEricGarner
#EndBrokenWindows
#ChangeTheNYPD

Additional information about the killing of Eric Garner
Many believe that the NYPD conducted an unlawful stop of Eric Garner; witnesses say he was breaking up a fight, not selling loosies as the NYPD claims. That stop escalated, with fatal consequences, aided by purposeful inaction of officers who did nothing in spite of Eric’s cries of "I can't breathe". To date, no NYPD officers have been fired or suspended without pay, and only two of the many NYPD officers on the scene have reportedly had their duty modified in any way.