From [HERE] New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department (NYPD) have lost their appeal attempting to block an inquiry into the circumstances around the fatal arrest of Eric Garner.

In Thursday's ruling, the appeals court upheld the decision from a lower court that allowed Garner's family and others to use a provision of the City Charter to investigate violation or neglect of duty.

"We find that this is the rare case in which allegations of significant violations of duty, coupled with a serious lack of substantial investigation and public explanation, warrant a summary inquiry to bring transparency to a matter of profound public importance: the death of an unarmed civilian during the course of an arrest," the decision read. "Accordingly, we unanimously affirm the order granting the petition."

The petition to open a judicial investigation was brought forward by eight New York City taxpayers, including Garner's mother, Gwen Carr; his sister, Elisha Flagg Garner and Constance Malcolm, mother of Ramarley Graham, who was killed by NYPD officers in 2012.

Garner was killed on July 17, 2014 after NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put Garner into a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. [stop. Lets clear the air on a few things about the dependent media Eric Garner coverage:

It was Never About One Cop. It was a Gang of White Cops. "Have you ever see one lone white man lynch one lone Black man? Have you ever seen it done without a gun?" [MORE] Eric Garner was killed by a gang of cops who smothered and pounced on him as a white cop placed him in a choke hold. But only one white cop was charged by white prosecutors. If a Black man put a white man in chokehold in front of white witnesses and a group of like 7 other Blacks pounced on him then.... [they would all be on death row]. 

Grand Jury was All White in the Blackest City in the Country. No cops were indicted by an all white grand jury. [MORE] Yes an all-white grand jury in NYC, a city with the largest number of Blacks in the country. White prosecutors had over 2 million Blacks to choose from and chose none!] Orta said, “when I went to the grand jury to speak on my behalf, nobody in the grand jury was even paying attention to what I had to say,” Orta said. “People were on their phones, people were talking. I feel like they didn't give (Garner) a fair grand jury." A white man he described as a prosecutor “wasn’t even asking no questions about the police officer, he was asking all the questions towards Eric,” Orta said. “What was Eric doing there? Why was Eric there?” "It was all-white." [MORE] The white jurors were presented with 28 eyewitnesses and had every camera angle - jurors saw the Youtube video, NYPD video, store video and City street camera video. If you believe that racist suspects are concerned with whether 'Black lives matter' then you want to be deceived. [MORE]

NYC is also the mecca for democrats and liberals. What are they doing for you if 1) uncontrollable cops can kill you in broad daylight and 2) never be held accountable? The only person arrested after Garner’s murder was Orta! Ramsey was targeted and arrested by NYPD officers on trumped up gun charges and only a few months later was also indicted on multiple drug charges. It didn’t stop there. Ramsey Orta was arrested multiple times after Garner's 2014 death. He was accused in 2014 of stuffing a gun into a 17-year-old girl's pants — a charge he has called "ridiculous" — and accused in 2014 and 2015 of selling drugs to undercover officers, DNAinfo reported.

"There's no chance I'm dumb enough to give a girl a gun out in the open like that," Orta told The Verge. "The cops had been following me every day since Eric died, shining lights in my house every night. You think I'm walking around with a stolen gun that now they say wasn't even loaded?"] [MORE]

Garner was heard repeatedly telling officers that he could not breathe while being held face down on the sidewalk. He later lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at an area hospital an hour later.

Video footage of the incident gained national attention and sparked calls for police reform.

An investigation was approved by the lower court in four areas: the circumstances around Garner's arrest and death, the official paperwork of his arrest and death, how Garner's sealed arrest history and medical records were leaked to the media shortly after his death and the lack of medical care he received while lay on the sidewalk waiting for an ambulance.

DeBlasio and the NYPD had argued that the disciplinary trial of Pantaleo had already constituted a thorough investigation of the incident, but the court said there were other troubling aspects including "false filings and statements made in connection with the incident" that had not yet been investigated.

In December 2015, a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo—a decision that sparked public protests against police brutality. During a disciplinary hearing over the summer of 2019, an administrative judge recommended that the officer be terminated from the force.

More than five years after Garner's death, Pantaleo was fired on Aug. 19, 2019.

DeBlasio and the NYPD argued that Section 1109, the lesser-known provision, was not meant to investigate the conduct of low-level officers, but the court ruled that the broad language of the clause means that it applies to violation or neglect of duty by low-level officers as well.

Section 1109 applies to "any alleged violation or neglect of duty in relation to the property, government or affairs of the city."

The appeals court said that the impact Garner's death had on the topic of the use of force by police would allow for the judicial inquiry to move forward.

"His repeated last words – 'I can't breathe; – have become a rallying cry against excessive force by police," the ruling read. "Viewed in this context, the issues raised in the arrest and death of Garner and its aftermath are of the greatest significance."