Mayor of New York City commemorates Eric Garner’s death on 10th anniversary

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference at City Hall in New York, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Wednesday commemorated the 10th anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, a black man killed by police in 2014, calling his death a “painful chapter in the history” of the city.

“Today marks the tenth anniversary of the tragic death of Eric Garner. The events of July 17, 2014 are a painful chapter in our city’s history,” Adams wrote in a post on the social platform X. “But Eric did not die in vain. While there will always be more work to do, we have learned from this tragedy to ensure something like this never happens again.”

Garner’s death at the hands of police sparked major Black Lives Matter protests in 2014 demanding action against police brutality.

Adams, a former police officer, said during a press conference Tuesday that he prays that an “Eric Garner situation” will not happen again.

“With Eric Garner, it’s like it was yesterday when the call came. I remember going to the wake and seeing the family members and talking to them,” he said.

Garner was placed in a chokehold by Staten Island police on July 17, 2014, after police said they were attempting to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. A bystander’s video showed him saying “I can’t breathe” while in the chokehold before he lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put Garner in a chokehold, was fired in 2019. Neither Pantaleo nor the other officers present were ever charged, although the city coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide.

New York authorities later determined that Pantaleo was using a chokehold, which had been banned by the New York Police Department in the 1990s, The Associated Press reported.

In 2021, Garner’s family reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city while seeking justice through a judicial investigation into his death that same year, the news agency added.

The New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called for tougher measures against deadly police violence on Wednesday.

“A decade later, not enough has been done to end the epidemic of deadly police violence against Black people,” the organization wrote on X. “Eric Garner should still be alive today.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday he joined Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, and members of the National Action Network to honor his memory at the site of his death.

“We have gathered to show the community that despite our pain and anger, we will not be divided,” Sharpton wrote in a lengthy post on X. “Together, we fight against injustice and police brutality in Eric’s name. While we have seen some progress, such as body cameras and the Eric Garner Act, true justice and accountability for Eric’s death remain elusive.”

Six years after Garner’s death, the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 sparked a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests. George Floyd, begging for air during a confrontation with police at the time, had uttered the same words.