The Second Major Case Of The Black Lives Matter Movement

The death of Eric Garner, the second major case of the Black Lives Matter movement, gave the movement more momentum, even more so because it concerned the police department commonly either recognised as famous or infamous-- the NYPD. On the afternoon of 17 July 2014, in Staten Island, New York, Eric Garner was publicly executed by the NYPD-- including the murderer, Daniel Pantaleo. The video begins with Eric Garner raising his voice at a police officer who he says repeatedly “harasses” him and will not leave him alone. Eric Garner says that he “wants to just be left alone.”. After a faded cut in the video, the officers converge on Garner and grab him arms to which Eric asks for them not to touch him. After resisting their grabbing, Garner is

While still keeping Garner on the ground, handcuffed, the officers sat mindlessly around him waiting for an ambulance (“”). The NYPD has since stated that the chokehold was completely illegal and against the Police Department’s policies (“Of Course It Happened Again”). This event, non-officially being fourth recorded death of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the second (non-official) key case in the movement as a whole, came with a lot of controversy when Daniel Pantaleo was not indicted for the murder. The case was also under fire when a judge decided that the transcripts and details of the case would not be released (Eisenberg; Vorhees). Many think that the reason for this is just what the judge said, that is was to prevent outside influence on the case, but many also belief that it was to keep secrecy in between the case and the people in order to get away with an unfair investigation (Vorhees). This being the second “major” killing of the Black Lives Matter movement, especially due to it being recorded, there was nationwide outcry after death and after the decision to not indict