NEW YORK – The Green Party of New York (GPNY) renewed its call for justice for Eric Garner in response to the Justice Department's announcement that it would not bring federal civil rights charges against the New York City Police Department officer responsible for killing Garner, an unarmed citizen, five years ago today.

Green Party of New York

www.gpny.org

For Immediate Release

July 17, 2019

Contact:

Peter LaVenia, Co-chair, GPNY chair2@gpny.org or 518-495-8001

Gloria Mattera, Co-chair, GPNY chair@gpny.org or 917-886-4538

"For five years, justice has been denied to the family of Eric Garner," said GPNY co-chair Gloria Mattera. "For five years, officer Daniel Pantaleo has remained on the NYPD payroll, despite video evidence and conclusions by the city's medical examiner, an independent autopsy, and an NYPD internal affairs inquiry that Pantaleo used a chokehold. We call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to exercise his influence with Police Commissioner James O'Neill to do the right thing and fire officer Pantaleo," said Mattera. O'Neill is currently awaiting a judge's verdict following a departmental trial.

"The Justice Department announcement comes on the eve of the fifth anniversary of Eric Garner's homicide," said GPNY co-chair Peter LaVenia. "It comes in the aftermath of demonstrations across the country last Friday calling on the Trump Administration to close the ICE concentration camps that are holding immigrants trying to enter the United States. It follows a week that has seen an overtly racist and divisive President Donald Trump continue to find support from white nationalists and fascists for his disturbing comments, and his repeated refusal to disavow them. Viewed together, these events starkly bring into focus the ongoing struggles for black and brown liberation in America, struggles that the Green Party is committed to," said LaVenia.