Jamie Cooper
The Eric Garner Case Was a Form of Police Brutality
December 16, 2017
Introduction
Police brutality has been occurring throughout the nation forever, and it is still in
existence today. Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive force by police. It is the
unnecessary force that police use to handle a situation involving another human-being.
Excessive force can include verbally or physically abusing an individual, unnecessarily pulling a
gun out on someone, falsely arresting someone, using force to intimate an individual, using racial
profiling as a means to react, etc. Although all Americans are granted the same rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, freedom, equality, and so forth; police brutality seems to
occur most against African American males. A fairly recent, but historic case of police brutality
was the case of Eric Garner. This document will examine the Eric Garner case to determine
whether the force was justified.
The Situation
On the date of July 17, 2014 Eric Garner; a 43 year old African American male was
approached by two officers named Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. The officers approach
