A NYPD commander shrugged off the death of Eric Garner, who repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” during a 2014 struggle with an officer, as “not a big deal” in a text message to the cop’s sergeant. Garner pleaded “I can’t breathe” 11 times during the struggle, captured on a bystander’s cellphone video, before he had an asthma attack and died. Dhanan Saminath wrote in a text to his boss, Lt. Christopher Bannon, The New York Times reported. “Not a big deal,” Bannon wrote back. Pantaleo was not charged with any crime in Garner’s death, which helped ignite the Black Lives Matter movement.

Source: Huffington Post May 17, 2019 17:03 UTC