NEW YORK _ Hundreds of demonstrators called for the firing of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo on the fifth anniversary of Eric Garner's death, and Garner's daughter said she's ready to protest daily if the cop remains on the force.
"If he doesn't get fired, we're going to do this every day," Emerald Snipes-Garner told about 300 people as they marched from Foley Square to police headquarters in downtown Manhattan Wednesday evening.
"If we get no justice then there will be no peace ... They're not doing anything. They haven't done anything in five years. We don't want any more investigations. We want him terminated."
The protest came a day after the U.S. Justice Department said it would not file federal charges against Pantaleo, who put Garner, 43, into a chokehold as he tried to arrest him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island.
Pantaleo's departmental trial with the NYPD wrapped up in early June, and it is up to NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill to decide if the officer, who is on modified duty without his shield or gun, will be fired.
On Wednesday, as police finished their business and shifts at headquarters they used a back entrance to leave the building, thereby avoiding the protest.
"Five years later, we are still here. My son was killed five years ago, and I'm still feeling that pain," Garner's mom, Gwen Carr, told the protesters, who shouted back words of support. As she spoke, film director Spike Lee recorded her with his cellphone camera.
The protesters carried five black coffins, marked with Garner's name, and messages demanding the firing of each of the police officers who responded to Bay Street that day.
