Eric Garner Jr. has clapped back at the leader of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter in New York over comments made about Mayor-elect Eric Adams.
New York BLM chapter leader Hawk Newsome said the city would erupt in “riots and bloodshed” if Adams reinstates a plainclothes police unit, as reported by Black Enterprise.
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Garner responded to his comments in a statement to the New York Post.
“Hawk Newsome threatening to burn down our city in response to Mayor-Elect Eric Adams’s proposal of bringing back the anti-crime unit in plain clothes is an insult to injury to my family and the movement at large,” Garner said.
“On behalf of the entire movement I must ask you to retract your statement and redirect that righteous anger to help all of us form a more constructive way of accomplishing our goals because at the end of the day, we all we got!”
He added: “I stand with Mayor-Elect Eric Adams on this.”
Here’s more from BE:
The plainclothes police unit was disbanded by current police commissioner Dermot Shea, who is not expected to keep the job under Adams. Frontrunners to replace Shea include Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, Philadelphia top cop Danielle Outlaw and former Newark Police Chief Ivonne Roman. Adams has been adamant about reinstating plainclothes cops in an effort to curb gun violence and make the city safe for its tourism industry which has suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic
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“I made it clear on the campaign trail, I’m going to put in place, not the anti-crime unit, I’m going to put in place a plainclothes gun unit,” said Adams.
In 2014, Garner Jr’s father, Eric Garner Sr., was choked to death by an NYPD officer for allegedly selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island. His chokehold death while being arrested fueled Black Lives Matter protesters, whose rallying cry was Garner’s pleas of “I can’t breathe!”
Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who put Garner in the prohibited chokehold, avoided criminal charges. He was fired by the NYPD in 2019.
In his statement, Garner Jr. said, “We have worked hard to pass the Eric Garner anti-chokehold bill, and as a result my brothers and sisters have a fighting chance against police brutality.”
“The late Kobe Bryant, along with the Los Angeles Lakers, wore my father’s last words on t-shirts to bring awareness to his murder! My late sister Erica Garner sacrificed her life for this!” he said.
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