Perverted mind: The officer who reportedly caused the death of Garner with the chokehold, Pantaleo, in cap, waved jokingly as victim is carried away
[Publisher’s Commentary]
The New York Police Department (NYPD) officers involved in the encounter with Eric Garner that led to his death after an officer applied a chokehold on him did not attempt to revive him even after he appeared to have stopped breathing, a second video recording of the July 17 incident on Staten Island shows.
There is no sense of urgency or attempt at any life-saving procedure and the handcuffs are still maintained, the second video shows.
It’s as if the NYPD officers were staring at a dead animal and expected it to somehow spring back to life and get on its feet.
“Where’s the ambulance; where’s the ambulance,” a bystander’s voice is heard asking.
The second video is 7:35 minutes long and shows Garner lying on his right side on the pavement, handcuffed, and appearing lifeless.
The first video showed how two NYPD officers initially confronted Garner who insisted he wasn’t doing anything wrong and asked to be left alone before one of the officers, identified in The Daily News as Daniel Pantaleo, applies a chokehold from behind and practically climbs on his back. The second officer was identified as Justin Damico. The officers’ actions clearly escalated the incident.
In this second video, at one point an officer slaps Garner on his right shoulder and tells him to “breathe.”
At some point when officers kept telling bystanders to “get back,” the person apparently recording the encounter says: “You hear this? Now they trying to get him an ambulance. After they harassed him. Slammed him down, NYPD…”
He adds, “nice try, it’s so going viral,” most probably referring to the video recording that’s now posted on YouTube and linked on several news websites.
“Harassment. Watch these cops from Staten Island. This is what they do,” he adds.
One of the officers who is still holding on to the handcuffed and seemingly lifeless Garner, at the 4:00 minute mark, says: “Sir, EMS is here, right sir? Answer the questions, okay?”
His words sound macabre, since Garner had not responded to any of the officers’ verbal communications and the shoulder shake since the time his body had gone limp.
“He can’t breathe,” a bystander, possibly the same one recording the incident, says in an incredulous tone.
The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) employees then arrived and at the 4:17 minute mark a female medical marker places her fingers on right side of Garner’s neck, and when asked by an officer, claims there was a pulse.
When the female EMS worker returns on the video frame, at the 4:32 minute mark, she also speaks to Garner as if she had some indication that he was responsive and able to communicate: “Sir, come on. It’s EMS. We’ll get you a stretcher, right?”
The actions look and the words sound as if meant, not for Garner, but for the bystanders and witnesses; to give the impression that Garner was not in danger of losing his life.
It’s possible the officers and EMS worker feared possible angry reaction by the witnesses; maybe the officers and emergency worker knew Garner was already dead or near death.
Might that also be a reason why the officers and the EMS workers didn’t even attempt to revive him?
At the 5:50 mark a bystander’s voice is heard asking: “Why nobody do the CPR?”
“They do nothing,” the person apparently recording the incident says
“Because he’s breathing,” an officer claims, even though the opposite seems true.
At the 6:03 minute mark, before he’s lifted on the stretcher, Garner is turned over by the officers and lays on his back and is motionless.
At the 6:58 minute mark the plainclothes police officer who applied the deadly chokehold, Pantaleo, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, is seen waving playfully at the person recording the incident, who says: “He has the nerve to wave.”
“NYPD harassing people for no reason. He didn’t do anything,” the bystander who also appears to be the person recording the incident, says.
“These are the cops in Staten Island,” the bystander adds, “This is what the fuck they do…”
Part of any investigation into Garner’s death must look at the initial notes and report of the EMS workers, especially the female worker shown on the video, and the first NYPD report filed by officers that also formed the basis of the misleading account first disseminated by Police to media including The New York Times.
