America is still abuzz tonight over the Staten Island grand jury’s decision to “no bill” an officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. It’s on the minds of New Jerseyans.
But first, Garner’s stepfather at the homemade memorial where Garner’s life ended. He insisted on non-violence and nothing negative.
“Right now my only concern is keeping everything peaceful out here tonight,” said Benjamin Carr Wednesday night. “We try to calm it down before it got too far.
NJTV News Correspondent David Cruz found out what New Jerseyans think of the grand jury’s decision and Garner’s encounter with police and others like it.
“The way Eric Garner was killed, you can clearly see in the video he had his hands up. He was saying he couldn’t breathe. And the fact that you had all those officers on that one man after he was taken down, it just don’t make any sense. You can’t say you feel threatened when they already knew he was or what he does, he sells loose cigarettes, but you did all that force for nothing and then you killed him,” said Newark resident Shante Rice.
“I think better training, more proactiveness, realizing that citizens are not enemies and they’re definitely not combatants unless they’re firing at you. And then you still should do everything possible to preserve life,” said Newark resident Louis Correia.
“More black men are gonna get killed, recklessly, by white police officers,” said Irvington resident Barry Charles.
“I never had any personal encounters with the police so I don’t have any firsthand experience with that, but generally speaking, my feeling about the police is pretty good, is a pretty good feeling. I’m pretty sure 99 percent of the cops are good cops,” said Millburn resident Philippe Attias.
“It just seems like we have no value, no voice. We mean nothing to this country. We were born here. We’ve lived here our whole lives. We’re supposed to honor America just like everyone else. And it’s hard to really feel that way deep down in the heart because you just feel like a target. You feel like a target, you feel like you don’t have a voice and you don’t matter,” said Orange resident Ibn Blanford.
Cruz was in downtown Newark Thursday night in the midst of a demonstration of citizens walking to City Hall where he said they were calling for an end to police brutality.