The family of Eric Garner, whose death after being choked by a New York police officer spurred forward a nationwide protest movement, demanded on Tuesday that a $5.9m payout from the city be followed by criminal prosecutions.
Speaking at a press conference in Manhattan, Garner’s relatives said the financial settlement would not quiet their calls for action from the federal government against those involved in his fatal arrest last July.
“Don’t congratulate us,” said Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr. “This is not a victory. The victory will come when we get justice. Then we can have a victory party.”
Garner’s daughter Erica said she would be satisfied “when we get indictments and when we get a fair trial”. She said: “This does not represent justice. We call on the Department of Justice and [attorney general] Loretta Lynch to deliver justice for my father.”
Garner, 43, died on 17 July after being placed in a chokehold during an arrest on Staten Island for allegedly illegally selling loose cigarettes. The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide but a state grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who placed Garner in the hold, with any crime.
Video of the arrest, recorded on the cellphone of a bystander, showed a desperate Garner telling police “I can’t breathe” – words that became a rallying cry at demonstrations around the US over the deaths of him and other unarmed African Americans such as Michael Brown, 18, who was fatally shot about three weeks later in Ferguson, Missouri.
