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

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.