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Daniel Pantaleo, the officer at the center of the choking death of Eric Garner five years ago has been let go by the New York Police Department. He will not receive his pension according to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.

“Trials Commissioner Maldonado ruled that officer Pantaleo’s use of a prohibited chokehold was reckless and constituted a gross deviation from the standard of conduct established for a New York City police officer,” O’Neill said. “I agree with the Deputy Commissioner of Trials legal findings and recommendations and it is clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer serve as a New York City police officer.”

“Every day in New York, people receive summons or arrested by officers without any physical force being used. But some people choose to verbally and/or physically resist the enforcement action lawfully being taken against them,” O’Neill said before his announcement.

He added, “Those situations are unpredictable and dangerous to everyone involved. The street is never the right place to argue the appropriateness of an arrest. That is what our courts are for. Being a police officer is one of the hardest jobs in the world.”

Read his summation of the firing of Pantaleo below:

“No one believes that officer Pantaleo got out of bed on July 17, 2014, thinking he would make choices and take actions during an otherwise routine arrest that lead to another person’s death. But officer’s choices and actions even made under extreme pressure matter. It is unlikely that Mr. Garner thought he was in such poor help health that a brief struggle with the police would lead to his death. He should have decided against resisting arrest, but a man with a family lost his life. And that is an irreversible tragedy. And a hard-working police officer with a family and a man that took this job to do good, to make a difference in his home community has now lost his chosen career. And that is a different kind of tragedy.”

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