Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. No Federal Charges for NYC Police Officer in Eric Garner Case Leslie Bonilla Updated July 16, 12:30 pm WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors will not bring civil rights charges against the New York City police officer involved in an unarmed black man's chokehold death in 2014, according to media reports. Eric Garner, 43, was allegedly selling loose cigarettes on the street when police attempted to arrest him. When Garner resisted, asking officers not to touch him, they restrained him. Garner died after police put him in an apparent chokehold, which the NYPD has banned. The federal government had until Wednesday to file charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the officer accused of killing Garner, and any of the other New York City police officers involved in the arrest. The statute of limitations on the case expires July 17, the five-year anniversary of his death. Prosecutors said there wasn't enough information to pursue the case. They were scheduled to meet with Garner's family Tuesday morning, including his mother, Gwen Carr, and widow, Esaw Snipes. The family received a $5.9 million settlement from New York City in 2015. Though Garner's death was ruled a homicide, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges in 2014. A federal investigation, fraught with infighting, is ongoing, but hasn't released any updates. Results have not been released for an administrative trial of Pantaleo that ended last month. The penalties in that case range from Pantaleo losing vacation days to being terminated. Though Pantaleo was stripped of his badge and gun after Garner's death, he has remained on desk duty. Activists respond "This city and country must feel the power of black organizers," read a Facebook post by Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, which hosted a rally Monday in front of the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington Monday, in support of Garner. The statement echoed Chairman Hawk Newsome, who said at the rally that the group would "shut down New York City" if the DOJ declined to charge Pantaleo. Activists online decried the DOJ's response, which was widely expected. At Monday's rally, they denounced an insensitive media cycle and opportunist politicians for disregarding Garner, as well as other black men killed by police. "Where are the elected officials? The people we voted in office that we voted in office to represent us?" asked Nupol Kiazolu, the organization's 19-year-old president. She called out Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, both freshman Democratic Congresswomen, as well as presidential candidates Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden. "All these people that are running for president of the United States, that are pandering for black votes right now, where the hell are you?" Kiazolu asked. Video goes viral A video of Garner, with Pantaleo's arm around his neck and three other officers holding him down, went viral. His death sparked waves of protests against police brutality, his last words plastered across T-shirts and strewn through news articles. "Since [the video], Eric has died a million times over. America has watched Eric Garner die a million times over," said Newsome. Prosecutors in the administrative trial argued that Pantaleo's alleged chokehold, which the NYPD has banned completely since the 1990s, killed Garner. A lack of oxygen triggered an asthma attack, which caused the cardiac arrest that killed him, the medical examiner who performed Garner's autopsy said. The defense said Pantaleo was actually attempting a "seatbelt" hold, which puts an officer's arms around the subject's torso and shoulder. Defense lawyer Stuart London said that what killed Garner instead was his own poor health, which included obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma. Black men killed Police killings of black men and boys have been a flashpoint in police-community relations for years. A Washington Post [1]database reports 102 black people have been shot and killed by police in 2019, out of 487 total cases. Eric Logan, 54, of South Bend, Indiana, was [2]killed in late June, prompting presidential candidate and Mayor Pete Buttigieg to take time away from the campaign trail to hold a local town hall to listen to community members. Sgt. Ryan O'Neill, the officer involved, said Logan had threatened him with a knife, but had left his body camera off. The Black Lives Matter group's goals include establishing a mandatory medical response for subjects who complain of injury, independent investigators and prosecutors for police shootings, and a national database of police shootings. Angelique Negroni-Kearse, whose husband, Andrew Kearse, [3]died in May 2018 in the back of a police cruiser, emphasized the importance of following through with Garner's five-year-old case. "Let this officer be prosecuted, because if she (Eric Garner's wife, Esaw) gets that, it's a win for us all," she said at Monday's rally. "For the ones that don't make the news, that don't say, 'I can't breathe,' it's a win." References 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/?utm_term=.d672c588f824 2. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/eric-logan-shooting-stirs-anger-over-racial-injustice-pete-buttigieg-n1021711 3. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikehayes/kearse#.af0eE8JN3 .