Evoking memories of a more troubling era, the NYPD finds itself under mounting criticism over the death of a Staten Island man whom police were arresting for selling illegal cigarettes.
Mayor de Blasio warned it’s “too early to jump to any conclusions” about Eric Garner, a 400-pound asthmatic who suffered a fatal heart attack while resisting arrest.
The mayor added he found a video showing the man in an apparent chokehold “very troubling” — and raised questions about how cops are to respond when called to enforce the law.
Councilman Jumaane Williams called it a clear-cut case of cop brutality. Meanwhile, Al Sharpton plans to appear with Garner’s relatives to demand an investigation.
Garner’s death is a tragedy. No one should die while being arrested. But it doesn’t automatically make the NYPD culpable.
As Police Commissioner Bill Bratton noted, plainclothes cops — acting on repeated complaints from local merchants — told Garner they were going to arrest him. Garner, in turn, “made it quite clear he would not allow himself to be arrested.”
Bratton added, “I do not expect my officers to walk away” in that kind of situation, especially when, as in Garner’s case, they are physically resisted while “in performance of their lawful duties.”
We’ll be watching to see what investigators conclude about the force police used.
Until all the facts are in, we share a view Ed Koch once expressed: Mayors are “obliged” to presume cops accused of brutality during an arrest have “engaged in the lawful use of appropriate force, unless circumstances are clearly to the contrary.”