Eric Garner’s Mother Gwen Carr Suggests Race Factored In Daniel Penny Verdict: ‘Two Justice Systems’

Gwen Carr speaks outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse following the acquittal of Daniel Penny on December 9, 2024, in New York City. | Source: Alex Kent / Getty

The mother of an unarmed Black man who was infamously choked to death by the NYPD in a killing that went unaccounted for suggested that race played a factor in Monday’s verdict that acquitted a white man who used a lethal chokehold on an unsuspecting, unarmed Black subway passenger last year.

Gwen Carr – whose son Eric Garner was recorded on video a decade ago in Staten Island being attacked and choked by a mob of NYPD officers trying to arrest him for the suspicion of selling loose and untaxed cigarettes, a nonviolent misdemeanor offense – spoke out after a jury declared Daniel Penny was not guilty of negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely.

MORE: Notable White Vigilantes Who Were Never Held Accountable

Penny was acquitted despite video evidence and eyewitnesses testifying that the former Marine who’s been trained to kill sneaked up behind Neely, who was in the throes of a mental health crisis, and placed him in a sprawling chokehold for about six straight minutes until he was dead.

Daniel Penny arriving at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on December 9, 2024, in New York City. | Source: Alex Kent / Getty

The defense presented their client as a Good Samaritan who was trying to protect other subway passengers from Neely, who screamed that he was ready to die and that he was hungry – but never attacked anyone – before Penny’s fatal ambush. The jury agreed.

During a post-verdict press conference outside of Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Carr stood beside Neely’s family and recalled her own similar journey pursuing justice for a chokehold killing.

“I stood here 10 years ago because they did not give justice to my son with the chokehold, Carr said in reference to a grand jury declining to charge any of the officers involved in Eric Garner’s death. “I fought hard to get the anti-chokehold bill passed – which did pass – but it shouldn’t only be for police officers, it should be for civilians also.”

Carr emphasized: “No one deserves to be choked to death.”

People attend a rally to protest the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on the subway, May 5, 2023, in Washington Square Park, New York City | Source: Andrew Lichtenstein / Getty

She then went on to suggest there was an element of favoritism when it came to Penny’s verdict being real aloud in court.

“You know, we’re in that courtroom and people are cheering for the verdict,” Carr said of Penny’s family and supporters. “They made the loudest noise and the judge did nothing.”

Meanwhile, Neely’s father was “forcibly removed from the courtroom by a court officer” after cursing following the verdict, according to ABC News.

Andre Zachary, Jordan Neely’s father, speaksoutside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on December 9, 2024, in New York City. | Source: Alex Kent / Getty

Carr then suggested that race informed this case from the very beginning, including when Penny was questioned but released without any criminal charges in the hours after he choked Neely to death. It would take nearly two full weeks for Penny to be charged with manslaughter, which was ultimately dismissed last week after jurors said they could not unanimously agree on a verdict. That paved the way for a swift acquittal on a criminal negligent homicide charge.

“If this had been the other way – if your family had murdered this so-called innocent guy now – it would have been a different story,” Carr told Neely’s family at the press conference about Penny. “He would have been in jail and would have never came [sic] out. But they don’t do the same to us. It’s two justice systems and we have to stop this.”

Carr echoed sentiments previously and repeatedly expressed by civil rights leaders that there are “two justice systems” — one for Black America and the other for white America.

A flyer with a picture of Eric Garner is seen near where he was killed in an encounter with the NYPD in July 2014, shown on August 22, 2014, in the borough of Staten Island in New York City. | Source: Spencer Platt / Getty

Carr spoke out ahead of the release of a forthcoming documentary about Eric Garner.

What happened to Eric Garner?

Despite what appeared to be an abundance of damning evidence against NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the ringleader of the police mob that attacked and choked Eric Garner, a Staten Island grand jury declined to bring any charges at all.

NBC New York reported at the time:

In delivering a vote of “no true bill,” jurors determined there was not probable cause that a crime was committed by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was seen on a widely watched amateur video wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck as the 43-year-old yelled, “I can’t breathe!” during the July 17 confrontation.

The Department of Justice even opened up its own investigation before deciding against bringing federal charges against Pantaleo, who was terminated more than two months after the conclusion of his NYPD administrative trial in 2019. While the NYPD determined that Pantaleo used an unauthorized chokehold on Eric Garner, no criminal charges were ever brought against him. In 2021, Pantaleo’s appeal to rejoin the NYPD was denied, the extent of his punishment for killing an unarmed Black man in broad daylight.

This is America.

SEE ALSO:

Infamous ‘Subway Vigilante’ Bernhard Goetz Speaks Out About Daniel Penny’s Chokehold Trial

The Killing Of Jordan Neely And Why Police Should Also Be Held To Account

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