In the death that became a high-profile incident in the movement against police brutality, a police officer in Long Island put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014 after approaching him on a sidewalk for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. The incident was caught on video and officially ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, but a grand jury declined to indict the officer. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice also declined to bring charges. The lack of legal consequences has once again raised questions from police reform activists about a lack of accountability for police officers and racial disparities in policing and the criminal justice system.
Jim Braude was joined by Rahsaan Hall of the Racial Justice Program of the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Michael Curry, former president of the Boston NAACP and current chair of the National NAACP Advocacy & Policy Committee.
