LESS than two weeks after a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, another grand jury—this one in New York City—ruled on a similar case, and delivered a similar verdict. In Staten Island in July Daniel Pantaleo, a New York police officer in a plain-clothes unit, placed Eric Garner in a chokehold after Garner resisted arrest. Garner’s dying words were “I can’t breathe.” His alleged crime was selling “loosies”, or untaxed cigarettes, on a street corner. The incident was recorded by bystanders on their mobile phones, and it raised questions about racial profiling and aggressive policing in the city. Today a grand jury decided not to indict Mr Pantaleo. Some see this decision as merely another example of police invincibility regardless of circumstance.
