Eric Garner Is Remembered One Year After His Death

By Nate Schweber and Andy Newman, the New York Times

Held aloft in her mother’s arms, Legacy Garner, the 15-month-old daughter of Eric Garner, opened a wooden bird cage Friday morning and released a white rock dove.

As a small crowd cheered, the bird flew up, above the sidewalk in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, where Mr. Garner died at the hands of the police exactly one year ago.

About three dozen people gathered on the stretch of Bay Street where officers had tried to arrest Mr. Garner, with adults in white T-shirts with a photo of a smiling Mr. Garner under the words “A Year Without Justice,” and children in shirts that read “Black Lives Matter.”

Just before the dove was released, the crowd chanted “I can’t breathe” 11 times, echoing Mr. Garner’s words as his consciousness ebbed.

Last July 17, Mr. Garner, 43, was being taken in on charges of selling untaxed, loose cigarettes when he resisted, pulling away from being handcuffed, and an officer put him in a chokehold, a move against Police Department rules…

Earlier this week, the city agreed to pay Mr. Garner’s family $5.9 million to settle their wrongful-death claim.

[…]

Other events scheduled for Friday include:

• A 1 p.m. rally at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in Manhattan that will continue on the 2 p.m. ferry to Staten Island and at the site of Mr. Garner’s death.
• A 1:30 p.m. announcement of a voter-registration drive outside Staten Island’s borough hall.
• A march beginning at Columbus Circle at 5:30 p.m.
• A vigil led by Assemblyman Michael Blake of the Bronx outside his office at 780 Concourse Village West at 5:30 p.m.
• A 7 p.m. memorial at the House of the Lord Pentecostal church at 415 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
• A memorial at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem at 7:30 p.m.

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