‘New Yorkers Against Bratton’ Call For NYC Police Commish’s Resignation In Wake Of Eric Garner Death

Protesters said Bratton needs to be fired after the death of a Staten Island man in police custody. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a comment request. 43-year-old, Eric Garner died Thursday after he was arrested for selling loose cigarettes.

“What Commissioner Bill Bratton has shown is that he is unable to control his own police officers, and he has never done anything to address the systematic brutality that keeps on happening,” said Josmar Trujillo, an organizer with the group New Yorkers Against Bratton. “This is not a man who can mend and heal the wounds between community and police. He is a poison for communities of color.”

A video of the incident appears to show a police officer place Garner in a chokehold. Garner, an asthmatic, can be heard saying “I can’t breathe.” The chokehold is banned by the NYPD. The medical examiner has not determined a cause of death. Two police officers and four FDNY emergency workers have been reassigned.

Bratton, often credited as an architect of stop-and-frisk, has suggested that the department wielded the tactic recklessly under Ray Kelly, the police chief who most recently preceded him. At Bratton’s swearing-in ceremony in January, he professed a commitment to getting “every member” of the NYPD to treat all New Yorkers with respect, “regardless of their background, their class, their race.” I’d say he’s off to bad start, what do you think.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZEYOSRiQno&w=640&h=360]

A petition has been started to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to bring about
NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!