NEW YORK, December 4 (Sputnik) – US Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered to launch a federal civil rights investigation after a New York grand jury decided to not bring charges against a police officer who chocked African-American Eric Garner to death earlier this year.
"Our prosecutors will conduct an independent, thorough, fair and expeditious investigation. In addition to performing our own investigative work, the department will conduct a complete review of the material gathered during the local investigation," Holder said Wednesday.
"Mr Garner's death is one of several recent incidents across the country that have tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and protect," Holder added, urging people wishing to participate in protests against the grand jury's decision "to remain peaceful in their demonstrations, and not to engage in activities that deflect our attention from the very serious matters our nation must confront".
Protesters rallied in New York's Times Square and Staten Island on Wednesday, calling for a public trial of officer Pantaleo.
Garner, who was an asthmatic, died from suffocation in July after being put in a chokehold by police officer Daniel Pantaleo. A bystander recorded a video of police arresting Garner, who sold untaxed cigarettes, and Pantaleo later choking the man to death, as Garner cried out "I can't breathe, I can't breathe". The video went viral on the internet.
Wednesday's grand jury decision on Garner follows another similar case in Ferguson, Missouri, where African-American teenager Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in August. That killing and a verdict by a grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson last week set off nationwide protests and renewed debate over police brutality.
On Tuesday, Holder announced that the US Justice Department was completing its work on new law enforcement guidelines, aimed at ending racial profiling in the United States.
