04 Dec Dan on Nightline: December 3, 2014

Dan appeared on Nightline, Wednesday, December 3rd to discuss the grand jury decision regarding the Eric Garner case. Garner was an unarmed African American man killed by Caucasian police officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17th. A grand jury on Staten Island considered evidence in the fatal choking of Garner and after two months came to the decision that they would not indict the officer. This decision has sparked controversy on the heels of the recent Ferguson grand jury decision to not indict another Caucasian officer for killing Michael Brown, another unarmed African American man. Additionally, a video taken on cell phone shows Garner saying ” I can’t breathe, I can’t breath,” as the officer put him in chokehold. Garner’s death was ruled a homicide, with the chokehold as well as compression to the chest as contributing factors. Says Dan, “As a legal matter, police officers are allowed to do things ordinary people aren’t allowed to do, the question becomes when do they cross the line? When was it no longer objectively reasonable to use the kind of force that they did?” Watch the full clip here.