The Death of Eric Garner

This is a critical time in the Eric Garner case, with the NYPD starting a hearing on May 13, 2019, to consider whether a police officer violated departmental regulations by choking Garner and with the U.S. Department of Justice facing a statute-of-limitations deadline of July 17, 2019, to decide whether to indict that officer on federal charges. A nearly universal misinterpretation of the evidence for more than four years has had that officer "convicted in the press" of a "chokehold killing." Garner actually died from compressive asphyxia occurring during, and caused by, his restraint in the prone ("belly-down") position on the sidewalk. Medical examiners commonly miss this cause of death because it typically leaves no evidence detectable in autopsy. READ THIS BOOK to understand compressive asphyxia and how it is causing many other in-custody deaths that are misinterpreted as caused by something "before" the prone restraint, such as a chokehold or a stun gun ("Taser"). The Garner case could lead to better training of all law-enforcement officers to avoid causing this kind of asphyxiation, but only if we can get beyond the "chokehold" misinterpretation and understand what is actually revealed by the widely viewed - and almost universally misunderstood - video of Garner's takedown and restraint.