Group From Ferguson Joins Protests Over Ruling on Garner's Death in NYC

A co-chairman of the Don't Shoot Coalition, which was formed over the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson in August, said that the decision of the grand jury on the Eric Garner's case proved that unarmed and non-threatening people could be "killed by police with impunity."

NEW YORK, December 4 (Sputnik) — A protest group from the riot-ravaged Ferguson have joined protesters in New York City on Thursday following a grand jury decision not to charge a white police officer who killed a black man, Eric Garner, in a chokehold this June.

"It is clear that the law enforcement and judicial systems do not respect Black lives," said Michael McPhearson, a co-chairman of the Don't Shoot Coalition, which was formed over the police killing of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson in August.

"This is further confirmation that unarmed and non-threatening people can be killed by police with impunity. Eric Garner posed no threat to anyone; he was subdued and eventually killed in a chokehold, a technique banned by NYC policies. Yet, no one is being held accountable for this his death," McPhearson continued.

Garner was a street peddler selling untaxed cigarettes. He died from suffocation after he was put in a chokehold by a white police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, in July 2014. Garner was 43 and suffered from asthma. A video of the arrest was recorded by a bystander with a cell-phone and went viral on the Internet.

The United States saw another wave of race-related unrest just last week over a grand jury decision not to indict another white police officer, Darren Wilson, who killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, in August in Ferguson, Missouri.