“This is not a black and white issue – this is a national crisis,” said Eric Garner’s daughter Erica on CNN last night. Her comments are at odds with Mayor Bill DeBlasio (D-New York City) on what caused white Officer Daniel Pantaleo to use a fatal chokehold on black Eric Garner.
“I believe this is a crisis. For white people to come up to show how deeply they [were] hurt, and Asians, and different people from different nations in different parts of the world to show that they felt the same way they felt on that video, I greatly appreciate it. It’s a sense of – I’m not the only one that feels that way.”
“You said this is not a black and white issue,” replied host Don Lemon. “But, in that, are you saying this is not an issue of race? Do you think it’s a racial issue?”
“I really doubt it,” she replied. “It was about the officer’s pride. It was about my father being 6’4” and 350 pounds and he wants to be the top cop that brings a man down. Because he’s big. My father wasn’t even doing anything. He didn’t have a gun, he didn’t run, he didn’t smack him – nothing.”
“A lot of people will be surprised, because you know this is being made out to be a racial issue,” said Lemon. “You don’t think it’s about race?”
Garner: “Being that my father was black and the officer was white, I mean, that’s different races – but as far as the situation, I can’t really say it’s really a black and white issue. It’s about the police officer and abusing their power.”
Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who is married to an African-American woman, publicly stated that he believes the problem is racism:
“We’re not just dealing with a problem in 2014. We’re not just dealing with years of racism leading up to it or decades of racism. We are dealing with centuries of racism that have brought us to this day. That is how profound the crisis is.”
An alternative view of the issue was expressed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.):
“Well you know I think it’s hard not to watch that video of him saying ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’ and not be horrified by it. But I think there’s something bigger than the individual circumstances. Obviously, the individual circumstances are important. But I think it is also important to know that some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes so that's driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive. But then some politician also had to direct the police to say, ‘hey we want you arresting people for selling a loose cigarette.’ And for someone to die over breaking that law, there really is no excuse for it. But I do blame the politicians. We put our police in a difficult situation with bad laws.”
The previous mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, passed a huge increase in taxes on cigarettes and simultaneously, a floor price of $10.50 a pack and a ban on smoking indoors. Mayor DeBlasio continued Bloomberg’s policy of using the police to enforce these laws.