Days after backing the Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson and calling Ferguson rioters “scumbags,” NBA legend Charles Barkley defended the New York cop who choked Staten Island resident Eric Garner to death in a controversial event this July.
Barkley took issue with CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin’s labeling the death of the African-American man at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo a homicide. “I don’t think that was a homicide,” he said. “I think the cops were trying to arrest him, and they got a little aggressive. I think excessive force, something like that.”
“Brooke, if the cops are trying to arrest you [and] you fight back, things go wrong,” Barkley continued. “I don’t think they were trying to kill Mr. Garner. He was a big man, and they tried to get him down. I don’t see how you go to murder in that situation. It went horribly wrong.”
Barkley made the remarks yesterday; today a Staten Island grand jury decided against indicting Officer Pantaleo for Garner’s death. Garner was reportedly suspected of selling illegal cigarettes when officers attempted to arrest him.
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