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Where Eric Garner died, changes in NYC policing win little applause

Doug Brinson collects candles to prevent a fire at the make-shift memorial, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, where Eric Garner died in a police chokehold five years ago, in the Staten Island borough of New York. After five years of investigations and protests, the New York City Police Department on Monday fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the 2014 chokehold death of Garner, the black man whose dying gasps of "I can't breathe" gave voice to a national debate over race and police use of force. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Doug Brinson collects candles to prevent a fire at the make-shift memorial, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, where Eric Garner died in a police chokehold five years ago, in the Staten Island borough of New York. After five years of investigations and protests, the New York City Police Department on Monday fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the 2014 chokehold death of Garner, the black man whose dying gasps of "I can't breathe" gave voice to a national debate over race and police use of force. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Doug Brinson collects candles to prevent a fire at the make-shift memorial, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, where Eric Garner died in a police chokehold five years ago, in the Staten Island borough of New York. After five years of investigations and protests, the New York City Police Department on Monday fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the 2014 chokehold death of Garner, the black man whose dying gasps of "I can't breathe" gave voice to a national debate over race and police use of force. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By Associated Press 6 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A police cruiser constantly sits a few feet from a small floral memorial to Eric Garner on the Staten Island sidewalk where he spent his dying moments five years ago.

Tompkinsville Park, which police were targeting for patrols when they encountered Garner selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, remains a gathering place for desperate people.

Expletives flew on a recent hot afternoon as park regulars discussed everything from drugs and mental illness to jail conditions and the bail paid so they could sit on a park bench.

It was the day after Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced his decision to fire the white officer who put Garner in a chokehold, hastening his death and making the man’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Wednesday, the police department said it had resolved a disciplinary case against a supervisor who responded to the chaotic scene.