Posted on 01/01/2015 12:43:54 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Eric Garner is buried in Rosedale Cemetery, a sweeping expanse of land in Linden, New Jersey, located just across the river from Manhattan.
His funeral was in July, after a white police officer choked him to death on Staten Island. Known around town as a peaceable soul, Garner had been accused of selling untaxed cigarettes. He had six children and a wife, but he did not have a weapon. He lived to the age of 43, and his last words were “I can’t breathe.”
Despite a wealth of video evidence and a coroner’s report that labeled the incident a homicide, a Staten Island grand jury declined last week to indict the officer responsible for Garner’s death. Since then, of course, “I can’t breathe” has become a national symbol of protest against police violence toward African-Americans, and a judicial system that seems to ignore it. Recently, basketball players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant wore shirts bearing the phrase during their pregame warm-ups.
Garner has become an important metaphor, which can, but shouldn’t, overshadow the fact that he was once a man. I paid a visit yesterday to Rosedale Cemetery. I didn’t know Eric Garner, but I guess I wanted to make him less abstract. I went to the Rosedale office and received a map. A kind woman with a tattoo on her chest directed me to an area of the cemetery behind a large mausoleum called Elmlawn. Garner’s plot was labeled 8B-1.
I walked to Elmlawn but couldn’t find the plot. The ground was soggy from several days of rain and snow. A small man in a maintenance cart pulled up beside me and asked if I needed help. I said I was looking for 8B-1.
“The Staten Island man?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Very sad.”
Eric Garner's grave, plot 8B-1 in Rosedale Cemetery, New Jersey.
He led me to an unmarked bit of ground. There was no tombstone or flowers, or anything else people use to memorialize the dead. There was only a muddy, 2-foot depression in the shape of a coffin. Since Garner’s burial, the ground had settled some, and the maintenance man said they haven’t been able to fill it in because of the weather. He apologized for the mess and asked how I knew Garner. I said I didn’t know him at all.
“I haven’t seen anyone visit since the funeral,” he told me. “It’s hard.”
We stood there silently for a minute. I noticed Garner is buried next to a Vietnam veteran who died in 1983. His last name was Szczepanowski.
I asked the maintenance man who tended to Garner’s grave, but he talked past me.
“Look,” he said. “He’s alone. It’s a big deal.” He walked around the depression and shook his head. “Maybe we’ll be able to fill it in today.” His voice sounded hopeful, but then he looked up at the sky. It was cloudy and seemed to promise more bad weather. He shook his head again. “I don’t know,” he said. “What can you do?”
Garner died in hospital. Official cause of death: heart attack.
He was never choked to death by a police officer.
I didn’t post it for the author’s PC misinformation about his death, but rather to show that no one really cares about him now that he is dead. Just like Trayvon, Gentle Giant, Casey, etc. He is a tool to extort money from the City of New York and blame YT. PERIOD.
A kind woman with a tattoo on her chest . . .
huh???
I wonder if he had to submit a certain number of words and needed some filler.
The coroner rule it a homicide. Regardless of what Garner was doing, the officer should have stood trial for murder. The police, in general, have too much power, too full of themselves. Just as I am comfortable concluding that Brown apparently got what he deserved, I equally feel the police were out-of-control with Garner. Justice was not served. It is unfortunate Garner is dead, sad statement that his grave is left as shown.
Sounds like Tito Larriva was tossing around lyrics.
Interesting info:
Meet the man who set into motion the events that led to Eric Garner’s death
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3240665/posts
Well, at least they put a festivus poll next to his grave to celebrate the holidays.
It’s epic Hemingway-style....the stuff that writers used to put into articles prior to the 1960s.
Go back to newspapers published in the late 1800’s...especially those in Chattanooga, Dayton, or Shreveport. You’d have a rich style and description of an event....especially train accidents where the reporter would describe individual victims, their trade, and their demise.
Actually, my curiosity is hooked on this one....WHAT kind of tattoo did she have?
No surprise. In the end Gartner is just a tool for the left like all the others.
IIRC it can take quite awhile to get a headstone/marker made, and they may even have it - but waiting for better ground conditions to place it.
My father-in-law is buried in a small cemetary in New Jersey. I imagine nobody visits his grave either - except my mother-in-law was there visiting a couple years ago.
Where are Sharpton, Jackson, Holder and Obama. Pony up and least give I Can’t breathe A Fitting Marker - See I Told You I was Sick.
Even worse, it appears he was buried (more cheaply) without the concrete case. When someone is buried like that, filling the grave usually flattens the coffin very quickly; if wet earth is used to fill the grave, it can happen immediately.
Why does a man have to be harassed and placed under arrest for selling lose cigarettes, when they allow illegals to work, hold illegal street vending all the time?
That’s been my question all along, since very likely Garner had already bought those smokes and paid the precious effing taxes on them.
I guess the Justus Brothers are done with this one. Not even flowers... just damn..
Homicide and murder are two entirely different legal terms. Look them up.
I have heard distant drums claim that deBlasio ordered the crackdown the day before and the officers were following orders from the very top. Inquiring minds would like to know for certain.
I agree with your statement that the police have too much power, but I don't necessarily think this is a case where power was abused. The police didn't go out that day looking to cause trouble. The were sent to the scene in response to a call from a store owner who had a problem with a troublemaker outside his business establishment. Four police officers were sent to the scene because they knew they were going to have trouble with the guy when they got there.
Not even a memorial pile of trash next to it??
Just wow.
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