Crime

Will The Confederate Justice Department Refuse To Prosecute Eric Garner's Killer?

I have literally no faith in the current Justice Department to do the right thing when black lives are taken.

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In 2014, Eric Garner was choked to death in broad daylight, by a cop, surrounded by cops. It happened on Staten Island, so it should surprise no one that the Staten Island D.A., Dan Donovan at the time, refused to bring charges against his killers. Staten Island is a cop stronghold like Tortuga used to be a pirate safehouse. It should also surprise no one that the officers remain free, and Dan Donovan is now the Republican Congressman representing Staten Island. Just today, Donovan announced that he would propose legislation that puts financial penalties on “sanctuary cities,” like New York — the city where his constituents live — but wouldn’t hurt funding for police officers, arguably the only people Donovan treats as actual humans. The hypocrisy is only deepened when you remember that it’s police officers, and not the citizens of New York, who make the decision to comply with federal deportation forces, or not.

I bring up the despicable career of Dan Donovan just so that when you say “local forces found no fault with the officers in the death of Eric Garner,” you know that I consider that determination the product of corrupt pandering from a District Attorney who wanted to be a Congressman, and not the acceptable result of a fair investigation. Donovan’s investigation is worth less than nothing to me. From where I sit, accountability for Garner’s death was sacrificed so Donovan could win his election.

After Donovan got his boys off the hook, a federal civil rights investigation was started at the Department of Justice. It started under Eric Holder, it continued under Loretta Lynch. And apparently, it has continued even under Jeff Sessions. Those civil rights investigators are done with their work, and the New York Times reports that they have recommended charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who actually choked Garner to death.

The investigators have made their recommendations known to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who will have to brief Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Justice Department makes a decision to proceed. And… now we wait:

In recent weeks, career prosecutors recommended civil rights charges against Officer Pantaleo and sought approval from the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, to seek an indictment, according to the officials. Mr. Rosenstein has convened several meetings that revealed divisions within the Justice Department over whether to move forward. No decision has been made, but one law enforcement official said that, based on the discussions so far, it appeared unlikely that Mr. Rosenstein would approve charges.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also been briefed on the case and could weigh in after Mr. Rosenstein makes his own recommendation, officials said.

Jeff Sessions has shown racial antipathy towards African-Americans in so many ways: big and small. I don’t think a Klan sympathizer should be allowed anywhere near the Justice Department, much less as its titular chief. Jeff Sessions has been generally lauded by the mainstream media for preserving the “integrity” of the Mueller investigation. I find it troubling that a man who had to recuse himself because he lied to Congress, and has spent his free time dreaming up ways to further terrorize immigrant communities, with a side gig of defending the free speech rights of Nazis, is someone many white people portray as an upstanding public servant.

A case like this is exactly why you shouldn’t put an openly biased person in charge of law enforcement. It means that literally nobody can trust his judgment or prosecutorial discretion. If he refuses to prosecute, it’s just more evidence that Sessions is a racist. If he does prosecute, the #MAGA half of the country is going to say that he “caved” to civil rights “interest groups.” Dan Donovan, I’m sure, will be available for comment. Either way, instead of a sober analysis of the law, we’ll be getting another Civil War battle, circa-150 years after the Union, allegedly, “won.”

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Even if the Justice Department decides to prosecute, as career professionals suggest it should, it’ll be a hard case to win. As we’ve seen repeatedly, it’s more or less legal for the cops to murder black people in this country. Juries consistently refuse to hold cops accountable. Pantaleo’s defense is basically that he tried to subdue Garner with a legal hold, but Garner was just too big and black and Pantaleo ended up in a choke hold (which is type of hold prohibited by NYPD regulations) by “resisting.” The Staten Island cops, Dan Donovan, and untold numbers of white people believe that Eric Garner essentially choked his ownself to death. Like the brother got a little cop stuck in his throat and — tragically of course — nobody was around to administer the Heimlich. That argument could totally work on a federal jury. You just need one white person to be like “I’m also a small white person who couldn’t subdue a large black man unless I was allowed to choke the very life out of him. Hmm…” Pantaleo will not be tried as a state official with special training who had no objective reason to fear a black guy selling loose cigarettes, he’ll be tried as the possible victim of unknowable darkness.

I do not expect Eric Garner to receive justice at the so-called Justice Department. I do not expect him to receive justice from white people. I do not expect myself or anybody who looks like me to be treated as a full human by anybody in law enforcement, from Jeff Sessions on down to a goddamn meter-maid.

Of course, not expecting justice is the first step to not accepting the false justice imposed upon you. And once enough people start doing that… hell, that and a flag will get you at least a footnote in history.

Charges Sought in Eric Garner’s Death, but Justice Officials Have Doubts [New York Times]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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