Judge won't release testimony for chokehold death

[brooklynite]

Source: Crain's New York Business

Testimony heard by a grand jury that declined to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner will not be released, a judge said Thursday, arguing there wasn't a good enough reason to make the secret information public.

The New York Civil Liberties and others had asked the court to order Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan to release the grand jury transcript, including the testimony of the officer involved, Daniel Pantaleo, and dozens of witnesses, detailed descriptions of evidence and other documentation. A similar step was voluntarily taken by the prosecutor in Ferguson, Mo., when a grand jury there refused to indict an officer in the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Both Messrs. Garner and Brown were black; the officers involved are white. The deaths sparked nationwide protests about the treatment of communities of color by law enforcement and a debate about the role of race in policing.

Civil liberties lawyers had argued that the public needed to reconcile the widely watched video of the arrest with the decision not to indict the officer involved.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150319/POLITICS/150319800/judge-wont-release-testimony-for-chokehold-death#utm_source=Daily%20Alert&utm_medium=alert-html&utm_campaign=Newsletters

[valerief]

1. State Supreme Court Justice William Garnett probably won't even reveal what it cost to buy him off

either.

[mahannah]

2. Why is it secret? What is a "good enough reason"?

[A Simple Game]

3. The "public" needs to know because the cop was a government employee

working for the public when the deed was done.

We also need to know why a cop can go free for using an illegal hold, that was against New York Police policy and illegal by New York State law, which would have landed a normal citizen in jail. A hold that by watching the video you see the cop had every intention of using and didn't apply accidentally.

[MurrayDelph]

5. And that Eric Garner never

"resisted arrest." They never announced his arrest before attacking him.

Eric Garner was killed for resisting assault.

[Chakab]

7. This is one this things that upsets me most about the way that this case was characterized.

Several people, especially in the media, have repeated the "resisting arrest" story that the police put out, but you can clearly see in the tape that no arrest was initiated before Pantaleo and his cohorts jumped Garner. Before that, Pantaleo was questioning Garner, and Garner backed away with his hands up and said "please leave me alone." After they initiated the arrest, you can see in the video that Garner never resisted them.

They jumped him like that because he talked back to Pantaleo not because he was "resisting" them.

[Judi Lynn]

8. The corporate media made so much noise people lost track of this simple truth. Thanks. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

4. There really is no need to...

rational people who watched the video know what happened- the cops "legally" murdered a black man in the street, and NOTHING will be done about it. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

9. It must be a wonderful time to be alive for sociopaths. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Yep, they can have a career in law enforcement...

cops are out of control, and nobody wants to do anything about it. I guess something will be done once they start doing the same thing to white people at the same rate that they do it to those of color.

[SoapBox]

6. "Secret"?

WTF?

Wasn't there use of tax payer dollars for this whole thing, including to pay the police?

I demand to know the "secret" that we paid for!

What bullshit.

[rafeh1]

11. Its not called a criminal justice system for nothing

[Omaha Steve]

12. K&R!