海角大神

Two paramedics and two emergency medical technicians were suspended without pay Monday as officials proceed with investigating the death of Eric Garner, a New York street peddler who died in police custody last week after being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

The emergency services workers are not public employees but work for the Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, where Mr. Garner was declared dead after New York Police Department officers apparently put him in a chokehold. The workers, who responded to the scene, may not have followed standard emergency protocols as Garner, a 350-pound black man, lay motionless on the street.

The emergency workers鈥� inaction, combined with the chokehold that police officers may have used to subdue the neighborhood's well-known and well-liked father of six, has continued to fuel community outrage over Garner鈥檚 death.

The death has also resparked minority complaints about the tactics of the NYPD, including stop-and-frisk and the 鈥渂roken windows鈥� theory of policing, pioneered by Commissioner William Bratton during his first tenure in New York two decades ago. The theory focuses on penny-ante misdemeanors in high-crime neighborhoods to create a sense of law and order.

鈥淲hy does the NYPD see fit to throw someone in a chokehold over 50 cent cigarettes?鈥� said Josmar Trujillo, a community activist from Rockaway Park, Queens, at a . 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just that harassment or inconvenience of being stopped. There are real physical threats to our bodies every single day, and until you live in our communities, you won鈥檛 know that reality.鈥�

Two police officers at the scene have also been placed on desk duty this week, with pay, as internal affairs officers continue to investigate the arrest. The officer who allegedly placed Garner in the chokehold is Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran who has been in at least two lawsuits this year, including one settled in January for $30,000. After last week鈥檚 incident, he was ordered to turn in his badge and gun.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, now vacationing in Rome with his family, told reporters following him that he is committed to a full investigation, refusing to pass judgment on the actions of the NYPD.聽

"I ... emphasize that you need a full investigation, because all sides need to be heard and all evidence looked at," he said, adding that, though he is no expert, police indeed appeared to use the prohibited restraining technique.

Garner, who had a long rap sheet of petty offenses over the years, including marijuana possession and driving without a license, became unconscious after Officer Pantaleo put him in a headlock while at least three other officers wrestled him to the ground. During the incident, which was captured by numerous smart-phone videos taken by bystanders, Garner can be heard gasping, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe,鈥� repeatedly.

By the time the emergency workers arrived, Garner was lying unconscious on the sidewalk, his hands cuffed behind his back. But paramedics and EMTs did nothing but check his pulse with their fingers before at least six police officers and medical personnel grabbed his arms and legs and slung him onto a stretcher.

鈥淥bviously, state protocol is that if someone鈥檚 having difficulty breathing, you鈥檙e supposed to give them supplemental oxygen,鈥� Israel Miranda, president of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics & Fire Inspectors F.D.N.Y. Local 2507, . 鈥淏ased on the video, I didn鈥檛 see anything being done at that point.鈥� Mr. Miranda's union does not represent the suspended workers.

EMS workers are supposed to ensure that an unconscious, unresponsive patient鈥檚 air passages are clear and then provide oxygen, medical experts say. They should also place a cervical spine collar on stricken patients 鈥� especially to protect the neck after a chokehold.

For some reason, the gurney was not lowered to ground level, as most are equipped to do, and Garner鈥檚 head slumped backward as officers and medical workers struggled clumsily to sling his 350-pound frame to the stretcher, which was above waist level, a video of the incident shows.

鈥淭hey did the most inartful transfer of a patient to a stretcher that I鈥檝e ever seen,鈥� Dr. Alexander Kuehl, former head of New York鈥檚 Emergency Medical Services, told the Times.

For activists, such indifference has long typified the way police officers and emergency workers approach their communities, even as the NYPD devotes more time and resources to battle low-level crimes in high-crime, mostly minority neighborhoods.

These include felony arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana, which has been mostly decriminalized since the 1970s. However, during stop-and-frisk pat-downs, officers can instruct individuals to empty their pockets. Once they do, any marijuana then becomes 鈥渋n open view,鈥� a felony misdemeanor.

Police make these kinds of arrests almost exclusively in minority neighborhoods, and more than 85 percent of those arrested are black or Latin men. Surveys consistently show that whites consume as much or more of the drug.聽

鈥淭he NYPD has never choked a banker,鈥� has become a refrain among many community members since Garner鈥檚 death.

According to a recent random check of hundreds of arraignments in New York City courts, 100 percent of those booked on other minor violations, such as smoking in prohibited spaces or taking two seats on a subway car, were minorities, according to the, a Manhattan-based community organization.

Commissioner Bratton has also gone after unauthorized subway performers, who sing or dance or for money on platforms and trains. Arrests of these mostly minority performers are up 700 percent since he began his second tenure in January, according to Alex Vitale, a professor at Brooklyn College, who wrote .

鈥淚f de Blasio is serious about reducing inequality, he has to do something to dial back the aggressive targeting of poor people of color by the NYPD,鈥� wrote Professor Vitale, who has studied the effects of broken windows policing.

鈥淚f not, he will exacerbate the inequalities he鈥檚 vowed to reduce and undermine police authority,鈥� he continued, 鈥渕aking officers鈥� jobs more difficult and dangerous and leading to tragic outcomes like the case of Eric Garner.鈥�