While protests in New York City over the grand jury's decision not to indict a white NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner continues to gather momentum, his widow's comments on Sunday attracted some attention toward the city's high cigarette taxes, The Washington Times reported.
Eric Garner was targeted for his repeated defiance to local authorities in the selling of loose cigarettes, and not because of his race, wife Esaw Garner said, adding that Staten Island police were known to regularly harass the couple.
"I feel that he was murdered unjustly. I don't even feel like it's a black-and-white thing, honestly, in my opinion," Ms. Garner said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I feel like it's just something that he continued to do. And the police knew him by name and harassed us" for his illegal cigarette selling, she added.
"We would go shopping. They [would say] 'Hi, cigarette man. Hey, cigarette man wife.' You know, stuff like that," Ms. Garner said. "And I would just say, 'Eric, just keep walking. Don't say anything; don't respond. Don't give them a reason to do anything to you.' And he just felt like, 'But babe, they keep harassing me.'"
On July 17, at the request of local "minority business owners," police went to a location where Garner was known for selling cigarettes, UK MailOnline reported. In a widely-circulated video, Officer Daniel Pantaleo can be seen grabbing unarmed Garner and fatally holding him in a banned chokehold maneuver as the man repeatedly says, "I can't breathe."
The 43-year-old was targeted by authorities "because they're so eager for tax collection," Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Sunday.
"What was Eric Garner doing? He was selling cigarettes, loose cigarettes," Limbaugh told "Fox News Sunday." "And the police in New York, because they're so eager for tax collection - what is being done here [pertains] to taxes and the state's desire to collect them no matter what."
New York, known to have the highest state taxes of cigarettes in the nation with a total tax rate of $5.85 per pack, has forced the creation of an underground market and an incentive for people to sell loose cigarettes, according to critics.
"I think the real outrage here is that an American died while the state is enforcing tax collection on cigarettes. This is just absurd," Limbaugh said. "And ... you know, people talk about the left [wanting] a big state. They want a powerful state. Well, here it is. You've got to take all of it."
"How many people smoking marijuana did the cops pass by and ignore on the way to Eric Garner?" Limbaugh questioned.
"You've got $13 a carton, $13 a pack in New York City. Over $6 of that is taxes," Limbaugh said. "And the authorities are telling the cops, 'You go out and you stop that' because they're so intent on collecting tax revenue."
Meanwhile, the Staten Island's grand jury decision on Garner's death came nine days after the Ferguson grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson over the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
Rev. Al Sharpton, who also appeared on "Meet the Press," highlighted the racial issue in both cases, questioning whether Eric Garner's race contributed to his death, according to The Washington Times.
"When you bring up race - and she has tried to say, 'I don't want to deal with race as the issue,' but could he have been treated differently?" Mr. Sharpton said. "If he was of a different race with the same background, and no one's trying to sugarcoat anyone's background here, would he have been treated the same way? And that's what we're talking about."
