Death of Garner dredges up memories for BP Adams
On April 28th, 1973, Clifford Glover, a ten-year-old boy, was killed by Thomas Shea, an undercover police officer, in South Jamaica, Queens. His shooting sparked several days of riots in the neighborhood, riots that were inflamed when Shea was acquitted of murder. I was one of the young residents of that neighborhood, a thirteen-year-old boy witnessing what I perceived to be injustice in my community and the explosion of anger that resulted.
Over forty years later, these emotions have been reignited, with the Staten Island grand jury decision not to move forward and to end all further local criminal inquiry into the death of Eric Garner. It is difficult for many of us to accept this decision considering both hearing the video of a man on the ground yelling, “I can’t breathe,” and the Chief Medical Examiner stating the chokehold was the cause of Mr. Garner’s death. I share in the disbelief that many people are feeling about this result. The question is what we, as concerned citizens seeking justice in our society, will do. We have seen what the modern version of riots, like those I witnessed in South Jamaica back in 1973, look like from the fires in Ferguson, Missouri. How will what we do next impact children in our city that are watching our response?