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World News United States is the last country worldwide to continue using the Grand Jury. Jurors are not screened for bias, and are notorious for not indicting law enforcement officials, and, in addition, 14 of the 23 members of the Grand Jury in the Eric Garner case were white, and only 5 were African American. In New York, no officers were convicted on homicide charges between 1977 and 1995, which Cornell law professor Steven Clymer explained during a telephone call with the Human Rights Watch: "In most cases, jurors go into a case looking to reasons to convict. In police misconduct cases, they are searching for reasons to acquit." This attitude can be explained by the close relationship between the DA and the police; the DA is responsible for organizing grand juries, but they are dependent on police for evidence in their cases against other criminals, meaning that it is counterintuitive for them to be hard on law enforcement officials. Earlier this year, the New York district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., agreed to provide the police with over $20 million for new technology, in return for the New York police commissioner, William Bratton, agreeing to provide the DA Crime Strategies Unit more access to data about suspects. Bratton said that the project was an example of "extreme collaboration". Both officials have been working against violent crime in New York by increasing penalties for suspects, but have instituted no regulations to protect suspects from police. To their credit, the NYPD has been responsible for a decline in violent crime in the past few years; in 2013, there were 39 murders in Manhattan, while in 2010 there were 70. Over the same period of time, the number of shootings decreased from 146 to 115. Unlike the Ferguson Police, the NYPD is fairly diverse: in their most recent workforce profile report, they showed their ranks to be 41% white, 28% African American, 24% Hispanic, and 6% Asian. However, the New York Police Department has recently been criticized for practicing racial profiling in their policy of stop and frisk, which was deemed unconstitutional by Federal District Court judge Shira Scheindlin. More than 108,000 of the 194,000 people stopped under the Stop, Question, and Frisk policy were African American, while only 21,359 were white. Evidence of racial discrimination is also visible in the number of people killed by police violence: eleven of the sixteen victims of fatal police gunfire in New York during 2012 were African American, more than five times the number of victims who were white. These two statistics are especially jarring considering that African American people only make up 25.5% of the New York City higher level crime rate will also decrease. However, the relationship between Broken Windows and the crime rate is inconclusive, and the policy has been accused of targeting minorities in impoverished areas, like Eric Garner. A few days before Garner's death, the highest ranking policeman in the NYPD, Philip Banks, issued an order to increase punishments for selling loose cigarettes - an example of Broken Windows policing. Both the Police Commissioner, Bill Bratton, and Mayor Bill De Blasio are proponents of the policy, and use it to explain the recent decrease in violent crime in New York City. Protests began in New York City after the grand jury decision not to indict Daniel decision quickly became inflamed and were suppressed with tear gas and rubber bullets, reminiscent of Ferguson. The Millions March took place on December 13, 2014, and was the largest protest against police brutality so far in response to the events: tens of thousands across the country walked together, with signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and "I Can't Breathe". If nothing else, the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have shed a painfully bright light onto the biased law-enforcement system which exists in America. Half a century after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, police are still guilty of violating the rights of citizens based on their race and circumstance, and not being prosecuted for it. The punishment for petty crime, whether stealing a pack of cigars or selling an untaxed cigarette, is not and should not be death, and to justify the deaths of these two men with the idea that because they committed these crimes, they deserved the horrible ends they received is a disgrace to the justice system in America. However, it is vital to realize that the police are not so much the problem as they are the arm of a broken institution, which refuses to properly acknowledge the privilege it bestows on some and the destitution it forces on others. Although protests may be inconvenient and seem as though they are not solving the problem, they are essential because they are the only way that policy makers will be forced to realize and react to the injustices they are allowing. Racial inequality and persecution of those in poverty are problems that have existed since before this country began, but there is still at least some hope that they will cease to before it ends. Until that time comes, however, all we can say to the devastated families of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and the countless others who have lost their lives to injustice in this country, is "may they rest in peace". Page 5 February 20, 2015 Photo courtesy of jameskeivom.com "In most cases, jurors go into a case looking for reasons to convict. In police misconduct cases, they are searching for reasons to acquit." population; combined with data from the United States Census Bureau, one can deduce that African Americans were 6.326 times as likely to be shot at and 9.49 times as likely to be killed by the NYPD than their white counterparts in 2012 (11 of the 2,143,488 African Americans in NYC were killed and 20 were shot at, while 2 of the 3,697,153 white people in NYC were killed and 3 were shot at). Five years ago, 35 African American people were shot at by the NYPD while no white people were, showing that, though the ratio of likelihood is inconsistent, African Americans have been far more likely to be subject to police violence than their white counterparts in New York City. Eric Garner's death was a direct result of the NYPD's Broken Windows policy, which has cracked down on quality of life crimes, or "small crime", in New York City. The Broken Windows Theory posits that, by discouraging misdemeanors and low level crimes by scrupulously punishing them, the violent, Pantaleo was announced on December 3rd. Since Garner was killed, Daniel Pantaleo has been on "desk-duty", but a federal civil rights case for Eric Garner is currently underway, which could result in a conviction. However, that possibility is fairly slim, considering that in order to win the case, there will have to be direct evidence that Pantaleo had racially- fueled motives when he killed Garner. The day after the jury's announcement, Mayor De Blasio gave a speech in which he gave no support to the NYPD, and spoke of his and his wife's fears for their son's life, which are increased because of his skin color: "I've had to worry over the years, Chirlane has had to worry: is Dante safe every night?" Protesters are adamant that they will continue until they are convinced that the policies that resulted in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown will be changed. New York protests have remained nonviolent, though they have resulted in hundreds of arrests, but in Berkeley, California, protests of the Garner

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