The Department of Justice has removed the FBI agents and federal prosecutors investigating the police-related death of a black man in New York City from the case and installed a new team as it pursues federal civil rights charges.
According to a New York Times report, the federal government brought in FBI agents that were not from New York, while the prosecutors working the case have been replaced with different people. Eric Garner died after an NYPD officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island more than two years ago. Police said Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes.
FBI agents and federal prosecutors who have been on the case do not think charges should be brought against the officer who used the fatal chokehold. The Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice thinks otherwise, the Times reported.
That feud led to the federal government taking action.
A state grand jury voted not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the case. Pantaleo has been on desk duty since Garner died in July 2014.
Stuart London, one of Pantaleo's lawyers, told the Times: "This was always a simple street encounter where Officer Pantaleo utilized his NYPD training to subdue an individual.
"If it is true that the Justice Department is rejecting the recommendations of seasoned FBI agents and assistant United States attorneys, this is a gross miscarriage of justice. In our system of justice, politics should never take the place of the rule of law."
Five months after Garner's death, a man ambushed two NYPD officers in their patrol car and shot them both dead in what he said was retaliation for Garner dying after police tried to subdue him.
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