The Life and Death of Eric Garner
Eric Garner was born on September 15, 1970. He was 6 feet, 3 inches and 350-pounds. He had just turned 43. Garner, who was married to Esaw Garner, had been described by his friends as a “great guy and great with kids” and as a happy with nothing, but smiles
Garner’s record was not clean he had several times been arrested by the New York Police Department on multiple occasions since the mid 80s such as resisting arrest, grand larceny, and assault. Multiple times since 1980 he has been arrested for illegally selling cigarettes. In 2007 Eric filed a complaint towards the NYPD for being mishandled during a body search. The reports included details that the officer had
…show more content…
When a New York Police officer put Eric Garner in headlock and started chocking Eric, even though he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. The incident lasted somewhere from 15- 18 seconds while the officer was obtaining him. The Medical Examiner of New York City said that the death of Garner was due to mixture of things. Eric Garner had a history of poor health and with the combination of a chokehold and the compression of his chest was the cause of death. a That matter in the fact is that is illegal for a police officer to put a suspect or obtained in a “headlock.” The officer in the death of Eric Garner denies any use of headlocks or chokeholds, but according to multiple eye witnesses and video evidence some may say otherwise. The true sad thing of this is that the man was only selling cigarettes. New York Police Officers had been watching Eric very closely and went they got close, Eric told the Officers that he was doing nothing wrong and did not deserve to be harassed. Eric had been selling single cigarettes from packs. The officers then went towards Eric to arrest, but things went south very