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December 18, 2014

New York Lawyers Hold Die-in over Killings of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley 
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In New York City, protesters gathered Wednesday to mark five months
since the death of Eric Garner. Garner died after police placed him in a
banned chokehold and pinned him to the ground while he repeatedly said,
"I can't breathe." A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Officer
Daniel Pantaleo for Garner's death. Demonstrators are also calling for
justice in the case of slain African American Akai Gurley, who died in
November after an officer allegedly fired his gun by accident in a dimly
lit staircase at a Brooklyn housing project. The officer, Peter Liang,
then texted his union rep as Gurley lay dying. On Wednesday, a group of
attorneys staged a die-in at a Brooklyn jail. This is attorney Lisa
Edwards and, before her, Deborah Wright.

Deborah Wright, president, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys UAW Local
2325: "We represent clients every single day, and we want them to know
that not only are we upset, obviously, as what has been happening with
Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and now also we're waiting, obviously, what's
going to happen with Akai Gurley and that grand jury decision. We also
want to make sure that out clients who are here today and in the other
boroughs know that we care about them."

Lisa Edwards: "We work within the system, but the system is broken. So
we're here to say it's time for the system to be fixed. We need a
special prosecutor. We need open grand jury minutes. And that's what we
need to get justice."

 

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