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| ERIC GARNER |
Jonathon Moore, an attorney for the victim's family, said he was told there would be no indictment of officer Daniel Pantaleo. The medical examiner had ruled the death a homicide.
"Oh my God, are you serious?" Esaw Garner, Eric Garner's widow, told The (New York) Daily News. "I'm very disappointed. You can see in the video that he (the cop) was dead wrong!"
Garner and other family members scheduled a press conference with civil rights leader Al Sharpton for Wednesday night.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would meet with elected officials, clergy members and activists on Staten Island before holding a press conference later Wednesday.
The grand jury decision comes nine days after a grand jury declined to indict a Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the shooting death of another unarmed black man, setting off waves of protests across the country.
A video of the Staten Island incident drew national attention. Garner, who had asthma, is heard shouting "I can't breathe" at least eight times as police take him to the ground in a chokehold, an action the New York Police Department prohibits. Garner was taken from the scene unconscious and later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The viral video brought accusations of racism against the NYPD and prompted de Blasio to delay an overseas trip.
Four emergency workers were suspended and two police officers turned in their guns and badges as the Staten Island district attorney and a police internal affairs unit began investigations.
The grand jury was asked to decide whether Pantaleo, seen on the video placing his arm around Garner's neck, would face charges of criminal wrongdoing.
"I am actually astonished based on the evidence of the video tape, and the medical examiner, that this grand jury at this time wouldn't indict for anything, is really just astonishing," Moore said.
The civil rights advocacy group Ferguson Action Team issued a statement encouraging protest.
"We must all take to the streets and stand in solidarity with New Yorkers who will gather in Eric's memory," the group said in a statement. "Eric's case illustrates the way police operate with impunity in black communities as they cast an ever-widening net of criminalization. In his case, he was harassed by officers who suspected him of selling untaxed, loose cigarettes. For that, he lost his life."
A group called This Stops Now had been planning protests regardless of the grand jury's decision.
The group said in a news release, "Regardless of the verdict, we'll be hitting the streets to demand #Justicefor Eric Garner and an end to broken window policing," the practice of strong enforcement against petty offenses to battle disorder that fosters more serious crime. "A grand jury indictment doesn't equal justice. In cases where a grand jury has indicted, the majority of time the officers are found not guilty at trial."
The release said demonstrations will occur at 5:30 p.m. the day after the grand jury announcement if it comes Monday through Thursday or at 1 p.m. Saturday if the announcement is made Friday.
Garner's case came in a year that has seen several black people injured or killed in interactions with police, prompting civil rights organizations to call for reviews of police procedures nationwide and for police officers to wear body cameras while on duty.
After last week's decision by a Missouri grand jury not to indict former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, NAACP President and CEO Cornell Brooks told CBS This Morning that police procedures across the country must change.
"We're calling on people to push for a change in policing, a change in the way we police our communities. We're calling for legislative reform," Brooks said.
"We're calling for the kind of systemic, fundamental reform that can change this country and prevent future deaths. We have Michael Brown, we have Eric Garner, we have a litany and a list of young people who have lost their lives at the hands of police. This cannot be tolerated. It can't go on, and we have to step up and do something about it."
Last week's Ferguson protests stopped traffic on two major New York City highways and in the Lincoln Tunnel, which carries commuters between New Jersey and Manhattan. This time, de Blasio said Tuesday, if protests interrupt traffic, people will be arrested.
"If we think public safety is compromised, the police will have to very assertively address that problem," de Blasio said. "We need to get traffic and we need to get emergency vehicles through."
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