OPINION: There is no victory lap that comes from Pantaleo being fired

Councilmember Donovan Richards is chair of the Committee on Public Safety. Photo by Jeff Reed/City Council via Flickr.

By Donovan Richards

Special to the Eagle

Five years ago, the world watched NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo wrap his arm around Eric Garner’s neck and pull him to the ground, causing Garner to cry out for help with the only words he could manage, “I can’t breathe.”

And for five long years, Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, and the rest of his family fought tirelessly for justice. This week, Commissioner James O’Neill finally made the decision to fire Pantaleo, which was the right thing to do.

Justice delayed is justice denied, which is why this result is still a hard pill to swallow. Those of us who stood by Gwen Carr in her seemingly endless fight for justice are grateful to the Commissioner for making a truly courageous decision for the good of the entire city, but the truth is this decision never should have landed on O’Neill’s desk. Former Commissioner William Bratton presided over the NYPD when Garner’s life was taken in 2014 and was still commissioner when the NYPD’s own Internal Affairs Bureau recommended filing charges against Pantaleo in 2015. The ultimate decision was right, but the incredibly delayed process left a dark cloud hanging over the Department for far too long.

I know this was not a favorable decision for all New Yorkers and probably not for many in the NYPD who may have thought this could have happened to them. I do not think that Officer Pantaleo put on his uniform that day planning to end someone’s life. But as NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado determined, it was clear that he violated departmental policy by using a chokehold that cost an unarmed, nonviolent citizen his life. The members of the NYPD are servants of the people and there must be accountability to achieve the ultimate goal of police-community relations that the NYPD has been admirably working towards for several years now.

When we talk about ensuring that black lives matter, incidents like Eric Garner reinforce the idea that our lives do not matter in communities of color. If the world can watch a black man die on camera while in the hands of the NYPD for an accusation of selling a loose cigarette and see no consequences, there is no way we can feel any different. 

The overwhelming majority of officers are good, hardworking public servants who do their jobs to help people. But the only way they can get the credit they deserve is  through transparency in the NYPD discipline process and thorough accountability when an officer violates the public trust. 

The NYPD has moved in the direction of making their process more transparent through notifications on discipline trials and studying a discipline matrix, but there is much more to be done including the ultimate hurdle to transparency that is State Civil Rights Law 50-a, which has been interpreted to block the release of officer discipline records. Albany must repeal the law so communities can know more about the officers policing their neighborhoods.

As chair of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, it is my job to provide oversight on the NYPD’s policies and procedures. When I critique the Department, I’m not talking about the actions of individual officers who are almost exclusively following orders from their supervisors, I’m talking about departmental policies that prevent communities from fully buying-in to the neighborhood coordination program. 

My goal is always to move the department forward, not backward. However, we have to do that together and we all have to bite our lips and listen to each other.

There is no victory lap that comes from Officer Pantaleo being fired, especially since several other officers involved that day committed other offenses that violated Garner’s rights, but elected officials, communities and the Department need to come together to ensure any future incidents include a more rapid response with the full transparency New Yorkers deserve.

Councilmember Donovan Richards is the chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Safety and represents District 31 in Queens, which encompasses Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens and Far Rockaway.