$75 Million Suit Being Filed by Eric Garner’s Family

By Carla Murphy Oct 07, 2014

The family of the Staten Island man who died this July shortly after viral video captured his being wrestled to the ground by police is seeking $75 million from the city of New York. Cell phone video showed several cops swarming Garner and him being placed in what appears to be a chokehold, a practice banned by the New York Police Department. In August, the medical examiner ruled 43-year-old Garner’s death a homicide, caused in part by "compression of the neck and chest." On video Garner can be heard saying several times, "I can’t breathe." 

Last week, police commissioner William Bratton delivered a blunt message to a conference of NYPD commanders. 

"We will aggressively seek to get those out of department who should not be here," Mr. Bratton told a packed lecture hall [The New York Times reports]. "The brutal, the corrupt, the racist, the incompetent."

The Times describes the speech as Bratton’s "most forceful public remarks on police misconduct since Eric Garner…died in police custody…after he was approached for selling loose cigarettes."

Read more about the Garner family’s notice to file suit at Capital New York and the cost of police misconduct suits, nationally at The American Prospect.