就在埃里克·加纳去世五周年的前一天，司法部拒绝对这位NYPD官员提出联邦民权指控，指控他在2014年7月17日说出最后一句话“我无法呼吸”时将自己置于困境。
加纳，一个43岁的六个孩子的父亲，于2014年7月17日因丹尼尔·潘塔莱奥在斯塔滕岛非法贩卖香烟试图逮捕他后去世。
该事件的视频显示，黑人加纳重复了11次“我不能呼吸”这句话，而白人军官潘塔洛显然是用一种窒息的方式将他推倒在地。
虽然加纳的死亡被调查法医判定为谋杀，但潘塔利奥在此事件中可能面临的最严厉的惩罚是失去工作。
这位NYPD警官在2014年事件后被解除现役，但此后一直在警察局的工资单上。
司法部不起诉的决定是在该案件的诉讼时效即将到期之前做出的。
在接受采访时新闻周刊，纽约民权活动家霍克·纽瑟姆(Hawk Newsome)表示，他认为来自加纳家族支持者的压力迫使司法部本周披露其决定，而不是简单地等待诉讼时效结束。
“我们叫他们出来，强迫他们回应，”纽瑟姆说。“他们已经下定决心，只是以一种真正懦弱的方式让这个家庭蒙在鼓里...他们只是打算让诉讼时效到期。”
相反，他说，加纳的母亲格温·卡尔参加了一个会议，听取了司法部的决定，“失望地离开了”
但尽管纽瑟姆表示，他对司法部不起诉的决定感到愤怒和沮丧，但他表示，他对这一裁决并不感到意外。
“这是美国的司法系统，用三个‘KK’拼写——KKK。如果你在这个国家没有权力，那么你就得不到公正，对吗？”纽瑟姆说。
“现在，黑人没有足够的政治权力，因为所有应该关心我们的政治家，他们现在关心的只是边境上发生的事情，”他指出，全国都在关注美墨边境的局势。
“如果埃里克·加纳的案子发生在边境，每个政治家都会为他而团结起来。但是，因为他是一个黑人，而且这不是他们想与之交谈的受害者群体，所以他们就不管了。”
他说，如果像佛蒙特州参议员、2020年总统候选人伯尼·桑德斯和纽约州众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯这样的政治家要引起人们对加纳案件的关注，他相信这位43岁的父亲的家庭也许会有一些“公正”。
“他被那个警察谋杀了，但是没有人会站出来确保他的母亲会得到公正，”他说。
对纽瑟姆来说，在加纳死后的几个月里，斯塔滕岛大陪审团也选择不起诉潘塔莱奥任何州的刑事指控，加纳的母亲和其他家庭成员只有最后一种伸张正义的可能性。
“纽约市长最好解雇那个警察，”他说。“那是她唯一能得到的公正。这是她唯一能指望的正义。”
布鲁克林格林堡电影导演斯派克·李工作室外的埃里克·加纳纪念碑。司法部拒绝对与他死亡有关的NYPD官员提出联邦民权指控。史诗/盖蒂
IF ERIC GARNER HAD DIED AT THE BORDER, AMERICANS WOULD BE OUTRAGED, SAYS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AFTER NO CHARGES AGAINST POLICE OFFICER
Just a day before the fifth anniversary of Eric Garner's death, the Justice Department declined to file federal civil rights charges against the NYPD officer accused of having put him in a chokehold as he uttered his final words: "I can't breathe" on July 17, 2014.
Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, died after NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo tried to arrest him for selling cigarettes illegally on Staten Island on July 17, 2014.
Video of the incident showed Garner, who was black, repeating the words "I can't breathe" 11 times as Pantaleo, a white officer, forced him down to the ground in an apparent chokehold.
While Garner's death was ruled a homicide by the investigating medical examiner, the most severe punishment Pantaleo could face over the incident is the loss of his job.
The NYPD officer was taken off active duty following the 2014 incident, but has remained on the police department's payroll ever since.
The Justice Department's decision not to press charges came just before the expiration of the statute of limitations on the case could be reached.
In an interview with Newsweek, New York civil rights activist Hawk Newsome said he believed that pressure from supporters of Garner's family had forced the DoJ to reveal its decision this week, instead of simply waiting for the statute of limitations to run out.
"We called them out and forced them to respond," Newsome said. "They had made up their mind and just kept the family in the dark in a real cowardly way...They were just going to let the statute of limitations expire."
Instead, he said, Garner's mother Gwen Carr attended a meeting to hear the Justice Department's decision and "walked out disappointed."
But while Newsome said he was left angry and frustrated by the DoJ's decision not to press charges, he said he was not surprised by the ruling.
"This is the justice system in America and that's spelled with three 'Ks'–KKK. If you don't have power in this country, then you don't get justice, right?" Newsome said.
"Right now, black people don't have enough political power because all the politicians that are supposed to be taking care of us, all they care about right now is what's happening at the border," he said, pointing to the national focus on the situation unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"If Eric Garner's case were to happen at the border every politician would have been rallying for him. But, because he's a black man and this isn't the victim base they want to talk to, they left it alone."
If politicians like Vermont Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were to draw attention to cases like Garner's he said, he believed that perhaps there might be some "justice" for the 43-year-old father's family.
"He was murdered by that cop, but no one will stand up and make sure that his mother will get justice," he said.
For Newsome, after a Staten Island grand jury also chose not to indict Pantaleo on any state criminal charges in the months after Garner's death, only one final possibility of some justice for Garner's mother and other family members remains.
"New York City's mayor had better fire that cop," he said. "That is the only kind of justice she can get. That's the only kind of justice she can hope for."
A memorial to Eric Garner outside film director Spike Lee's studio in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The Justice Department has declined to file federal civil rights charges against the NYPD officer involved in his death.EPICS/GETTY
