Daniel Pantaleo, one of two NYPD officers to get into hot water over the death of Eric Garner, may face disciplinary proceedings within a few weeks, four years after Garner died.
As The New York Times reports, the reason that the NYPD hasn’t begun internal disciplinary proceedings against Pantaleo is because the Justice Department has also been investigating the case. The NYPD wanted to wait until the feds were done before begin its own disciplinary process. However, four years have passed since Garner died, and the Justice Department is no closer to ending its own investigation.
Lawrence Byrne, the department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, is tired of waiting. In a letter to the Justice Department, Bynre made it clear that the department will move forward with its own internal processes, with or without the Justice Department.
“Understandably, members of the public in general and the Garner family in particular have grown impatient with the fact that N.Y.P.D. has not proceeded with our disciplinary proceedings and they have difficulty comprehending a decision to defer to a federal criminal investigation that seems to have no end in sight.”
Garner died on July 17, 2014. At the time, Garner, a street vendor, was approached by two NYPD officers – Pantaleo and Kizzy Adonis – approached Garner because he was selling unlicensed cigarettes. Garner said that he was tired of being “harassed” by the NYPD for selling the untaxed cigarettes, and as officers tried to restrain him, Garner tried to pull away. This led to Garner being thrown to the ground and placed into a choke hold by Pantaleo, even as Garner protested that he couldn’t breathe. A bystander captured the incident on video.
Garner’s death sparked widespread protests and became the latest in a long and ever-growing list of unarmed black men who died at the hands of police.
The NYPD, for its part, deferred invoking disciplinary action against Panaleo and Adonis until after the Justice Department’s investigation had ended. However, that investigation has now entered its fourth year, and unless the DoJ makes a decision by August 31, the NYPD will proceed without them.
For Pantaleo, that means that he will face something akin to a trial, although it will take place completely within the NYPD disciplinary system rather than a criminal court (a grand jury declined to criminally indict Pantaleo for Garner’s death). Depending on the outcome, he could face anything from a suspension to outright firing.
It is not clear, as of this writing, when the NYPD will begin disciplinary proceedings against Pantaleo if the Justice Department fails to act by August 31.
