NYPD tweet about public trust becomes online battleground
The chief of the department’s community affairs division tweeted a hopeful message after the officer involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner was not indicted. It wasn’t what people wanted to hear.
In what felt like a reprise of last week’s news from Ferguson, Missouri, a grand jury in Staten Island, New York, announced Wednesday that it would not indict the police officer who put 43-year-old Eric Garner in a chokehold.
A group of officers confronted Garner in July about selling cigarettes illegally. When the encounter was over, Garner was dead. The entire incident was caught on video.
News of the decision not to indict the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, led to nationwide protests and demonstrations Wednesday night, such as a large-scale “die in” at Grand Central Terminal.
The Eric Garner “die in” at Grand Central Terminal. pic.twitter.com/YraortPnXq
— Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) December 3, 2014
It also led to mass outrage on social media platforms, particularly Twitter.
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