New York to Retrain Police in Wake of Chokehold Death Case
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New York says it is going to retrain its police force in the wake of a grand jury decision to not indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the retraining of the city's 20,000-member force Thursday. He said it was essential -- "something fundamental," in his words -- that people of all races be treated equally by police.
One key police official, Benjamin Tucker, said currently there is a "disconnect" between police and the city's 8.4 million residents. He said the three-day retraining sessions would be completed by June.
Hours earlier, U.S. civil rights leaders condemned Wednesday's grand jury decision. The New York case is one of several recent police killings of blacks that have occurred under questionable circumstances in the United States.
National civil rights leaders also pledged to release a longer-term “2015 action plan” that would address excessive force by law enforcement and police accountability one day after the grand jury cleared New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner during an arrest attempt in July.
National Urban League president Marc Morial said Thursday the incident represents the "abject, absolute failure" of the U.S. criminal justice system.
"This is a time in this nation, this is a moment where our consciousness is shocked."
Morial reserved his harshest rebuke for Wednesday's New York grand jury decision, saying it "defied common sense."
Another civil rights activist, Al Sharpton, called for the federal government to correct what he said is a "broken" system of state grand juries unwilling to hold police accountable for their actions and indict them on criminal charges.
Demonstrators held new protests in New York on Thursday after Wednesday's announcement that a grand jury had decided not to charge the police officer.
Protests first erupted there and in several other U.S. cities late Wednesday, and picked up again on Thursday. Scores of people marched through Times Square hours after the decision was announced, many of them chanting, "No justice, no peace.”