New York City said Wednesday that it is trying to negotiate a settlement with Eric Garner’s family as scores of defense attorneys protested the criminal justice system’s handling of police killings of unarmed black men by participating in marches and die-ins.
Officials in Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office said the push to reach a settlement of the $75 million civil rights claim brought forth by Garner’s family is part of Stringer’s strategy to settle major civil rights claims before lawsuits are filed.
In Brooklyn on Wednesday, public defenders and other lawyers marched at courthouses and a prosecutor’s office and staged a die-in outside a city jail. They later stood in front of a criminal court, chanting, “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe,” a reference to Garner’s last words. (Yahoo, AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)