VIDEO: Staten Island Man Dies After Placed in NYPD Chokehold, Slammed to Ground

This is just ridiculously sad.

The man, choking, says repeatedly, "I can't breathe!" My eyes get teary listening to his cries.

At the New York Times, "Man’s Death After Chokehold Raises Old Issue for the Police":

The 350-pound man, about to be arrested on charges of illegally selling cigarettes, was arguing with the police. When an officer tried to handcuff him, the man pulled free. The officer immediately threw his arm around the man’s neck and pulled him to the ground, holding him in what appears, in a video, to be a chokehold. The man can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” over and over again as other officers swarm about.

Now, the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43, soon after the confrontation on Thursday on Staten Island, is being investigated by the police and prosecutors. At the center of the inquiry is the officer’s use of a chokehold — a dangerous maneuver that was banned by the New York Police Department more than 20 years ago but that the department cannot seem to be rid of.

“As defined in the department’s patrol guide, this would appear to have been a chokehold,” the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said at a news conference in City Hall on Friday afternoon.

More.

And at New York Daily News, "Staten Island man dies after NYPD cop puts him in chokehold — SEE THE VIDEO."

A YouTube clip is here.