very intense, telling people reverend sharpton had an interview with eric garner s widow and mother together on the set and they had a compelling interview at the end. al sharpton turned to the camera and implord to the protesters to be peaceful, to get the message out, don t destroy businesses, don t resort to violence. that s never the path. cooler heads, mike you were occupant there last night to, prevailed on both side. police officers conducted themselves well too. i followed the protest for about 12 blocks. it was truly an impressive inclusive crowd. the ages ranged from young children 10 years of age, to elderly people like myself. that s a nice way of putting it. it was an inviting crowd as i said earlier. the crowd was so spontaneous and so into what had happened. but also on the other hand the police were terrific. i mean they stood back.
both parties recognize it. this is something we can come together on which i m excited about. i think we all recognize that this is this is one where we should be able to get it done. two other issues. one is a local issue here in new york but a nationwide conversation at this point. i m wondering what your reaction is to the decision regarding the death of eric garner, no indictment. right. right. this is a tragedy. and first of all, just let me say my heart goes out to the family. and i offer my condolences. i think we all have a lot, serious questions that need to be addressed and we they d to understand what happened, why this decision was made. i believe i would call for the house to have those hearings so that we can better understand, but we need to be taking action, appropriate action, make being sure our local law enforcement has the training, that they are using appropriate force which i think we all recognize that
policing, well apparently these police officers knew this guy fairly well. he is very frustrated that he s been a target of these officers repeatedly. you hear the guy on the camera at pun point saying eric garner was trying to break up a fight. the police officers there seemed to suggest that they saw him selling what are called loosies, cigarettes. this is something in the underground economy, goes on pretty frequently in new york and as you know in new york the taxes on cigarettes are incredibly high and there s a whole industry around that so there you have those police officers going after him in a way that i think most americans see as excessive. here s a guy who doesn t who isn t posing any real immediate harm. is that a cop killing a man or is it a policy? you know, it s probably a combination of both and this is something that rand paul talked about yesterday when he was
deferred they can apply for a work permit. the president is following the guidelines of congress saying that you don t break up families first. you get rid of the felons first. tell me let s move to eric garner case and obviously both in ferguson and now in staten island, a lot of concerns about the process, about the legal process, about the grand jury process. what s gone wrong? what went wrong on staten island? you know, it s sickening. i ve seen that tape as you have. it s just unambiguous jourks the chokehold was illegal. it was obviously unnecessary. the guy says 11 times i can t breathe. he was not resisting arrest. so that if the process had worked the way it s supposed to work there would at least have been an indictment and then a trial. so clearly eric holder and the u.s. justice department have their work cut-out for them. they have to figure out why all these police departments and
different point of view. because when you look at the video of eric garner being surrounded by police, can we put it up, please? so here s what i see when i looked at this, i don t know, 50 times maybe. i see proils rolicies run amost clear. all these different things that cops have to go after people in these small towns. five cops around one guy for selling loose cigarettes. he has his hands up. does this need to happen for a guy selling loose cigarettes? do they have to bring him down to the ground? and by the way, is there any indication in this video that this guy died for any other reason but what is happening right here? right. that s what he says. when he s confronted bipartisan these police officers who he knows there s this argument about community policing and these police officers should know the people that they are