|
 As hundreds of mourners fanned themselves against the heat, the
outrage sparked across New York City by video recordings, which show
Garner flat on a sidewalk pleading to the officer gripping his neck
that he cannot breathe, was never far from the surface.
Officers have been banned from using chokeholds for more than 20
years and the city has said it will investigate why the practice
appears to persist.
Between bursts of gospel singing, ministers preached loudly and
angrily over Garner's flower-bedecked white coffin, expressing
impatience with promises from Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police
commissioner, Bill Bratton, that the training of police officers
will be overhauled.
"Let's not play games with this," Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights
activist, said halfway through the service at Bethel Baptist Church,
thrusting a pointed hand into the air. "You don't need no training
to stop choking a man saying, 'I can't breathe!' You don't need no
cultural orientation to stop choking a man saying, 'I can't
breathe!' You need to be prosecuted."
The congregation filled with shouts, applause and amens.
Known to his friends as Big E, Garner, 43, had six children and had
worked over the years as a mechanic, a nightclub security man and as
a gardener for the city's park's department. He was known in his
neighborhood for breaking up fights, his friends say.
Police say they knew him better for selling out-of-state cigarettes
on the street, and were arresting him last Thursday on suspicion of
this misdemeanor when they tackled him to the ground during a heated
argument. Garner, who had a history of health problems, including
asthma, died soon after his body fell limp on the sidewalk.
Mayor de Blasio has called Garner's death, the cause of which has
not yet been determined by the medical examiner, a tragedy.
[to top of second column] |
De Blasio was elected last year in part because of his promise to
mend frayed relations between the police and New Yorkers, especially
the black and Latino men who were stopped and frisked on the street
in disproportionate numbers.
A federal judge declared the way the police department used the
practice unconstitutional last year, and ordered a federal monitor
to oversee the police.
Bratton, the police commissioner, has said he did not think race was
a factor in the death of Garner, who was black. But for the Bethel
Baptist congregation, it was the centermost factor.
"We are going to march until we no longer have to come to funerals
for this reason," Bishop Victor Brown of Staten Island's Mount Sinai
United Christian Church told the cheering congregation.
"We are going to continue to march until there is drastic reform of
the policy of the New York City police department so that when
police officers show up in our community we will no longer have to
fear for our lives and run from their presence."
(Additional reporting by Natasja Sheriff; Editing by Bill Trott and
Nick Macfie)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
