The head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association on Monday night slammed the city’s record-breaking $5.9 million settlement with the family of police chokehold victim Eric Garner as “obscene” and “shameful.”
“Where is the justice for New York taxpayers? Where is the consistency in the civil system?” Ed Mullins asked.
A jury would have awarded a lower dollar figure based on “neither politics nor emotion,” he said.
“In my view, the city has chosen to abandon its fiscal responsibility to all of its citizens and genuflect to the select few who curry favor with the city government,” Mullins told The Post.
“Mr. Garner’s family should not be rewarded simply because he repeatedly chose to break the law and resist arrest.”
In announcing the settlement — the largest ever for a wrongful-death case against an NYPD officer — city Comptroller Scott Stringer stressed the “extraordinary impact” the Staten Islander’s death had on the entire country.
“It forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve,” he said.
The family’s lawyer, Jonathan Moore, said there also was a dollar settlement with the Richmond University Medical Center, whose first responders had been dispatched to the scene.
Garner, 43, died last July 17 after Officer Daniel Pantaleo helped wrestle him to the pavement, having subdued him with an arm around the neck.
The 350-pound Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo; a federal probe is ongoing.
Garner’s family was attending a press conference Tuesday morning to announce that the settlement alone does not establish justice and to continue to push for federal charges.
“Hopefully, the Garner family can find some peace and finality from today’s settlement,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday night.
The settlement eclipsed other high-profile wrongful-death payouts by the city, including $3 million for the family of Amadou Diallo and $3.9 million for the family of Ramarley Graham.