Widow: Man who died in NYC police custody was quiet but is ‘making a lot of noise now’
NEW YORK — The widow of a New York City man who died this month in a videotaped confrontation with New York City police demanded justice on Saturday, saying the victim wasn’t asking for trouble.
Eric Garner “was not a violent man — not in any way, shape or form,” said his widow, Esaw Garner, in what were described as her first public remarks about the death. “He was a quiet man, but he’s making a lot of noise now.”
She described getting a text from her 43-year-old husband a half hour before he died July 17 that read: “I’m good.”
The widow and other members of Garner’s family spoke at the Harlem headquarters of the Rev. Al Sharpton. On Friday, Sharpton and the family met with federal prosecutors to ask them to bring a civil rights case against the New York Police Department officers who stopped Garner on Staten Island on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes.
A video shot by an onlooker shows Garner telling the officers to leave him alone and refusing to be handcuffed. One responded by appearing to put him in a chokehold, which is banned under police policy. Garner is heard gasping “I can’t breathe.” He was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Autopsy results are pending.
Death in Nigeria shows Ebola can spread by air travel; West Africa airports take precautions
ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerian health authorities raced to stop the spread of Ebola on Saturday after a man sick with one of the world’s deadliest diseases brought it by plane to Lagos, Africa’s largest city with 21 million people.
The fact that the traveler from Liberia could board an international flight also raised new fears that other passengers could take the disease beyond Africa due to weak inspection of passengers and the fact Ebola’s symptoms are similar to other diseases.
Officials in the country of Togo, where the sick man’s flight had a stopover, also went on high alert after learning that Ebola could possibly have spread to a fifth country.
Screening people as they enter the country may help slow the spread of the disease, but it is no guarantee Ebola won’t travel by airplane, according to Dr. Lance Plyler, who heads Ebola medical efforts in Liberia for aid organization Samaritan’s Purse.
“Unfortunately the initial signs of Ebola imitate other diseases, like malaria or typhoid,” he said.
Lawmakers in both parties gripe about poor, disjointed White House outreach to Congress
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s request for billions of dollars to deal with migrant children streaming across the border set off Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers in both parties complained that the White House — six years in — still doesn’t get it when it comes to working with Congress.
Top GOP leaders got no notice of the $3.7 billion emergency request. The administration sent contradictory messages about what it wanted to deal with the border crisis. And as the proposal drew fierce criticism, the White House made few overtures to lawmakers in either party to rally support.
House and Senate lawmakers in both parties plus several senior congressional aides said this past week that the handling of the proposal by Obama and the White House is emblematic of the administration’s rocky relationship with Congress: an ad hoc approach that shuns appeals to opponents and doesn’t reward allies.
Combined with a divided Congress — GOP-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate — and election-year maneuvering, neither basic nor crisis-driven legislation is getting done.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., described the lack of communication between the White House and Congress as “stunning.” He said he first learned many details of Obama’s border request from news reports.
By wire sources