A block in Staten Island has honored a Black man, who died at the hands of police violence, by naming a street after him. The honor comes eight years after his tragic death sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter marches in all five boroughs of New York, protesting the NYPD’s use of force on civilians.
On Saturday, July 16, family and friends of Eric Garner joined his mother and elected officials to commemorate his death by renaming Bay Street (at the corner of Victory Boulevard on the Island’s north shore) to “Eric Garner Way.” The significance of this particular corner is the site where his death occurred.
City Council voted on the honor in 2021.
On July 17, 2014, Garner was accosted by police officers who accused him of selling untaxed cigarettes called on the street, “loosies.” When officers went in to arrest the 6-foot-3, 350-pound African-American man — who, contrary to what is widely misreported, was not actually selling cigarettes that day — officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold. Before the 43-year-old expired, he was heard crying out “I Can’t Breathe” at least 11 times.
Those three words became cemented as a rallying cry in the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement and have been uttered by several men and women while in police custody or detainment, according to The New York Times.
Garner’s namesake spoke for the family.
Fox 5 New York News reported his son Eric Garner Jr. said, “That’s an honor, that’s something my family worked hard for, something that you know seeing my sister, my sister, continuously fighting.”
Carr said this day has been on her lips to God since her son was killed.
“I’ve prayed for this day for eight years and now it’s come to pass,” the mother said. “We haven’t gotten complete justice, but this is a step in the right direction. And I think everyone who helped me to get to this day.”
Justice for her son has been complicated.
In May of 2019, five years after his death, an administrative police judge said that Pantaleo should not be terminated from his job as an officer. A month later, on Tuesday, July 19, 2019, federal prosecutors decided no criminal charges would be leveraged against Pantaleo, a white New York City police officer, despite his role in causing Garner’s death.
Then on Monday, Aug. 19, 2019, one month after this decision, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced he would reluctantly fire the officer.
He said, “I’ve been a cop a long time, and if I was still a cop, I’d probably be mad at me. I would. Not looking out for us, but I am. It’s my responsibility as police commissioner to look out for the city and certainly to look out for the New York City Police officers.”
“It is unlikely that Mr. Garner thought he was in such poor health that a brief struggle with the police would cause his death,” O’Neill continued. “He should have decided against resisting arrest, but a man with a family lost his life, and that is an irreversible tragedy.
“And a hardworking police officer with a family — a man who took this job to do good, to make a difference in his home community — has now lost his chosen career and that is a different kind of tragedy,” O’Neill added.
The termination came after the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, who called Pantaleo’s actions “egregious misconduct,” recommended the department take the appropriate action.
In a 46-page written opinion, Maldonado said that Officer Pantaleo’s chokehold “fell so far short of objective reasonableness that this tribunal found it to be reckless — a gross deviation from the standard of conduct established for a New York City police officer.”
She also said the officer was “untruthful” in several interviews conducted during the investigation.
“Accordingly, this tribunal finds that there is only one appropriate penalty for the grave misconduct that yielded an equally grave result — Respondent can no longer remain a New York City police officer,” Maldonado said.
However, in 2020, the former mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, signed a series of comprehensive police reform bills called NYPD Accountability Package, which included outlawing the use of chokeholds by police.
Approximately 100 people were in attendance to witness the renaming, including Comptroller Brad Lander and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Lander said, this street corner should be about “remember[ing] Eric’s life, not just his death.
After the renaming ceremony, Garner’s family and community punctuated the day with a basketball tournament, organized by Malcolm Penn.
He said, “Even though he died a tragic death, we can keep his name alive forever by doing positive events like this.”
