After reviewing all the evidence, the 23 men and women on a Staten Island grand jury cleared Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July 17 choking death of Eric Garner.
Our view here is similar to our take last week on a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown.
Only the grand jurors have seen all the evidence, and, after they did, they apparently concluded Officer Pantaleo’s actions showed no malice or intent to harm.
Instead, they saw an unnecessary death that stemmed from Eric Garner’s decision to resist cops trying to arrest him for selling illegal cigarettes.
Had the 350-pound Garner not physically resisted, requiring Pantaleo and his fellow cops to take him to the ground, he would likely be alive today.
Obviously, the decision doesn’t diminish the tragedy for Garner’s family. But we were encouraged that Mayor de Blasio has noted that, while New York respects the right of the people to protest peacefully, “if we think public safety is compromised, police will act very assertively.”
Commissioner Bill Bratton has likewise moved to prevent violence from breaking out — noting that his biggest problem is not New Yorkers but “outside agitators who come in for these events.”
Neither the mayor nor the commissioner, who have just announced another drop in major crimes, wants a repeat of what happened in Ferguson after the grand jury’s decision there.
Unfortunately, some who wanted an indictment are behaving as though the grand juries have confirmed we languish under a racist police system.
Now, there’s always room for police to improve relations with those they serve. But too many players here — from Attorney General Eric Holder and Mayor de Blasio to the Rev. Al Sharpton — speak as though the grand juries have confirmed their call for a federal civil rights intervention.
But facts matter. And it’s telling that the only people who have looked at all the facts in these two highly contentious cases reached conclusions that in truth undermine the case for civil rights violations.