NYC mayor notes police reforms since Garner chokehold death

The father of six died in Staten Island last July after being placed in an illegal chokehold at the hands of former police officer Daniel Pantaleo.

A source familiar with negotiations reportedly told the newspaper that the family’s lawyer, Jonathan Moore, has been encouraging the Garner family to accept the $5 million from the city and then seek more damages in a separate lawsuit against EMTs who were seen on video allegedly failing to give the 43-year-old Staten Island, N.Y., dad medical treatment.

An investigation past year by FiveThirtyEight found that out of 8,300 police misconduct complaints involving almost 11,000 officers in the National Police Misconduct Reporting Project’s database from 2009 to 2010, just 3,238 resulted in legal action and only 12% resulted in jail time for the officers involved.

“Obviously, the anniversary is on my mind”, said de Blasio Monday after an unrelated event in the Bronx. In fact, according to the data presented, the city of New York State has paid out more than $428 million in such settlements since 2009. “And I think the important thing is to stay focused on the work of reform”.

De Blasio on Monday noted that all officers are being retrained on how to handle street confrontations and that the department is emphasizing improving relations with the public. “So, a lot has changed in the previous year, but I’m particularly hopeful about where we’re going”. It also set off a chain reaction of events that plunged de Blasio’s mayoralty into crisis.

The former NYPD officer was not indicted for the death of Eric Garner.

And days after the decision, a gunman who mentioned Garner on social media ambushed and killed two New York City police officers as they sat in their patrol vehicle.

Mr.de Blasio used the occasion to highlight both relatively low crime rates and his new “neighborhood policing” initiative unveiled last month, which will have cops regularly patrolling the same beat and spending a third of their shifts networking with community leaders. Previously, the family said they intend to sue for $75 million.