New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was heckled during his opening statement at the Democratic debate on Wednesday night by a protester shouting "fire Pantaleo." Further shouts of "fire Pantaleo" later broke out again when New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was giving his opening statement.
The shouted protests were apparently in reference to Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold before his death in 2014. Garner's arrest and gasps of "I can't breathe" became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, although a grand jury ultimately did not indict Pantaleo despite his use of a banned chokehold being caught on camera.
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"All eyes now fall to City Hall, where Mayor Bill de Blasio can finally deliver some measure of justice to the Garner family and those communities historically plagued by police brutality by firing NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo," Legal Aid Society attorney-in-charge Tina Luongo told the New York Daily News. "We hope that the Mayor at long last prioritizes the people of New York over the police union and abandons the political calculation that has ruled his decision making on this matter to date."
De Blasio largely hasn't expressed his feelings on Pantaleo's continued employment. "I'm not going to venture personal opinions," he said earlier this month. "When you're the steward of the entire city this is not about personal opinions."
Booker, for one, took the interruption in stride. "To the folks who were standing up to Mayor de Blasio a few minutes ago — good for you," his campaign tweeted. "That's how change is made."
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