Esaw Snipes-Garner, activist and widow of Eric Garner, has sadly died at age 58.
The New York Amsterdam Instances experiences that she handed early Monday morning resulting from undisclosed well being problems. Esaw Snipes-Garner’s dying was introduced on Monday by Rev. Al Sharpton’s Nationwide Motion Community (NAN). Dominique Sharpton, NAN’s nationwide director of membership and producer of particular occasions, launched an announcement celebrating Snipes-Garner’s life and activism, in addition to highlighting the unlucky quantity of tragedy she had endured over the past decade.
“Tragedy can beget tragedy in life, and she or he weathered greater than any single individual ever ought to need to — particularly the loss of a kid,” Sharpton’s assertion learn. “But Esaw discovered the resolve to maintain going, preserve preventing, and shield her household. She confirmed the nation the emotional impression unjust police killings of Black and Brown Individuals can have on these left to select up the items.”
Esaw Snipes-Garner labored regularly with Rev. Al Sharpton within the years following her husband Eric Garner’s dying. On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was allegedly promoting free cigarettes in Staten Island when confronted by former New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Video of the confrontation confirmed Pantaleo inserting Garner in a prohibited chokehold and holding it regardless of Garner saying “I can’t breathe” 11 instances. Garner died because of the confrontation.
Regardless of there being video proof, regardless of a prohibited chokehold getting used, and regardless of the medical expert ruling Eric Garner’s dying a murder, a grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on expenses associated to Garner’s dying.
When Pantaleo supplied condolences to the household, Snipes-Garner understandably refused to just accept them. “Hell, no! The time for regret would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe.” Snipes-Garner informed reporters. “No, I don’t settle for his apology. No, I might care much less about his condolences … He’s nonetheless working. He’s nonetheless getting a paycheck. He’s nonetheless feeding his youngsters, when my husband is six ft below and I’m in search of a strategy to feed my youngsters now.”
Pantaleo wouldn’t face any actual penalties for his actions till 5 years after Eric Garner’s dying, when he was fired by the NYPD. In 2021, Pantaleo tried, and failed, to attraction his firing. That very same yr, a judicial inquiry was opened into the case to create a public document of the selections made that led to the confrontation and in the end Garner’s dying. Whereas they by no means acquired true justice for Eric Garner’s dying, the town did attain a $5.9 million settlement with the Garner household in 2015.
In 2022, the road the place Garner tragically died was renamed Eric Garner Method in honor of his reminiscence, and a march was held in Staten Island final yr to mark the 10-year anniversary of Garner’s dying.
Esaw Snipes-Garner, alongside along with her daughter Erica and mother-in-law Gwen Carr, grew to become outspoken activists towards police violence within the years following Eric Garner’s dying. Erica led a number of protests towards police violence within the years following her father’s dying, together with a number of “die-ins” on the road the place her father died. Sadly, Erica Garner died in 2017 after struggling a coronary heart assault when she was solely 27.
Our ideas and prayers exit to the Snipes-Garner household, who’ve needed to endure far an excessive amount of tragedy over the past decade.
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