This week, the family of Eric Garner, the New York resident who died while being arrested by the NYPD, filed a notice of claim to sue in a civil suit against New York City and its police department.
The $75 million suit, which alleges “negligence, recklessness and carelessness” in Garner’s death, also names eight police officers as defendants.
The notice heavily questions New York’s “broken windows” policy, a method of crime enforcement popular in many metropolitan areas. The policy encourages officers to crack down on small offenses, with the idea that doing so will prevent larger, more problematic crimes from occurring down the road.
Garner had been previously arrested earlier in the year for selling untaxed cigarettes, marijuana possession, false personation and driving without a license.
In the notice, the family writes that, “The incident herein may have a direct relationship and/or may have been caused by the ‘broken windows’ policing policy being implemented and utilized by the … City of New York and the New York City Police Department.”
Garner, 43, was allegedly selling untaxed single cigarettes — a misdemeanor in New York — in Staten Island when approached by an officer in plainclothes, later identified as Justin Damico. After Garner protested, telling Damico that he was “just minding my own business,” another officer, identified as Daniel Pantaleo, 29, came from behind and placed the man in a chokehold. Despite repeatedly telling officers that he couldn’t breathe, Garner was wrestled to the ground, with Pantaleo later pushing Garner’s head into the sidewalk with his hands.
Garner, who had preexisting heart, obesity and asthma problems, died a few minutes later. In 1993, the NYPD banned the use of the chokehold as a means of subduing suspects. The incident was caught on video by a friend of Garner’s, Ramsey Orta. This footage sparked national outrage, and Garner’s death was later ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner. The official autopsy report cited that “compression of the neck,” in conjunction with Garner’s health problems, likely resulted in a fatal heart attack.
Despite the video and medical examiner’s findings, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Foundation, Patrick Lynch, suggested that Pantaleo had used a legal method of takedown — and not a chokehold — to subdue Garner in the July 17, 2014, incident. The District Attorney’s Office formed a grand jury in August, which is currently deciding whether to criminally charge the officers involved in Garner’s death, according to the Huffington Post.