THEJNSREPORT

When Police Chief O’Neill announced that police officer Daniel Pantaleo was terminated from the NYPD some thought that should be enough to satisfy Eric Garner’s family and the calls for justice.  Why it took five years to come to this decision is simple.

The NYPD never wants to find any of its employees guilty of doing anything wrong on/off the job.  When you have any organization that investigates itself alone, there should be no surprise when that organization continuously finds no wrong doing on its part, even and especially when someone’s life has been taken away and unnecessarily so.

For too long police have been used to getting away with murder, literally.  For too long they have been paid while under investigation after killing someone unjustly while the blue wall rally’s to cover up for it.  The mainstream media (also in cahoots with law enforcement) attack the victim’s character, name and/or reputation as justification for an unnecessary killing of an unarmed man (at least six more officers were involved in Eric Garner’s public lynching) while defending the actions of the police saying we must be calm, we’re not to react, we’re not to react with violence, and wait for the wheels of justice to turn.

Defending our selves is a must every second of every day everywhere in this world. Being vigilant, but also relentless in our pursuit of justice and accountability is an absolute must.

A silver lining to this development is that this murdering officer doesn’t get to collect a pension from our tax paying dollars to live on after having done what he did.  The other officers involved should have also been fired.  Pantaleo’s firing does send a message but is far from doing anything really substantive in the way of restitution to the Garner family.  How do you replace a life taken?  You simply can’t.  There’s no amount of money that can absolve that heinous sin.

What I’d like to see happen afterward is that Pantaleo be personally sued for Eric Garner’s death and held liable to support Mr Garner’s children and widow for the rest of his life.  Would that ever happen?  Given the track record of how justice has gone for us in America and around the world most likely not.