Letters: Garner jury and police were right
Marvin Day, of Jackson Heights, holds up a large bus on Seventh Avenue in Times Square on Dec. 4, 2014 in protests over the death of Eric Garner. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Although I believe that New York City police Officer Daniel Pantaleo could have been indicted, I agree with the grand jury decision not to indict.
Hopefully, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will come to the same conclusion and also recognize that prohibiting the use of a chokehold in an arrest is inappropriate. The prohibition should be removed from the NYPD Patrol Guide, as I have recommended to Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and other NYPD unions.
Jack Coughlin, Dix Hills
Editor's note: The writer is the treasurer of the NYPD Superior Officers Association Retired.
If the police officers in these two cases were black, would the outcomes have been different?
From what I've read, Eric Garner was asked to put his arms behind his back, because he was being arrested for criminal activities. If he wasn't guilty, why did he refuse? He was very big and heavy, so to handcuff him, the cops had to bring him down. Unfortunately, he died in the attempt. He knew what he was doing was illegal.
In Missouri, Michael Brown wasn't a choirboy. He also gave the police officer a difficult time. Again, if it were black police officers, would these deaths have happened?
It's not white against black. It's police officers trying to do their jobs.
These decisions don't give a bunch of hooligans the right to burn, loot and jeopardize the livelihoods of innocent people who are trying to work and support their families.
No one rioted when an Asian man was thrown in front of a subway train in the Bronx and a black man was arrested. Now we have an 18-year-old black man accused of pushing a Hispanic woman and her baby to the ground in the Bronx to steal her cellphone.
Why don't these incidents receive the same news coverage?
Virginia Schnappauf, Ridge
