Unarmed black man in ferguson, missouri, there is a similar script to the events that played out recently in ferguson a grand jury in Staten Island section of new york city decided not to indict new York Police OfficerDaniel Pantaleo in the choking death of eric garner. Garner died after panaleo and other plains clothes Police Officers attempted to arrest him on the selling of a loose cigarettes on the street. Unlike ferguson, the protests in new york from peaceful and local. New yorkers have been following the garner case since his death in july, a week after a similar grand jury decision in missouri, and the violence sparked there, its clear that eric garner will signal something bigger to most americans. That yes, sir were devoting the show to the garner case. Mike viqueira joins us from washington where he heard that the attorney general is announcing an investigation into this death. Michael, what do you know . Reporter well, thats right, Al Jazeera America has confirmed that the department of justice will launch a civil rights investigation into the homicide of eric garner on the streets of eric garner. This will be an investigation of civil rights investigation to see whether or not these individuals had their civil rights violated by the officers, who ultimately killed them in trying to restrain them or trying to keep them back as the case may be. Now president obama spoke earlier today. It was a previously scheduled event, but it came just after the grand jury decision at Staten Island announced, very similar situation in timing, timing after the mike brown grand jury as well. The president said its his job as president to solve some of the issues, the underlying issues that these incidents have brought to the fore. He reminded everyone that just monday the Police Task Force to come up with solutions with the evident mistrust between Law Enforcement and the africanamericans communities around the country. Hes asking congress for more Police Training and for more body cameras. The president was speaking to the annual tribal conference at the department of interior. Heres a little bit more of what he had to say. Do we have that sound bite . We have president obamas comments that mike is looking for. We do not have it just yet. Reporter in any event the president said he has formed a task force on policing. He reminded everyone that Law Enforcement officers, and weve heard this before from the president , that theyre doing their job and we have to stand behind them, but there is no denying the fact that there are problems between Police Departments and communities around the country. Mike viqueira, youll be there for us. Were expecting to hear from the attorney general as well. Lets go to Staten Island reporter paul beban. Hes there in Staten Island where the police attempted to detain him there. Reporter there is a vigil going on. A gathering of mostly neighbors, community members. Not a big police presentation. They do not expect violence. Folks are chanting no justice, no peace, calling , but so far tempers remaining calm here. Emotions running high. A lot of people saying here that this is a part of the town part of new york where Everybody Knows everybody else. Where neighbors stay in touch. These are all familyowned businesses. Really a sense that this community will try to cool together, an andcome together and work through this together rather than venting rage or in any other way. Well go to Grand Central station and Rockefeller Center, and we have dante in harlem, where were expecting a press conference shortly, including eric garners parents. Lets go to roland martin. Hes with us via skype. A good friend of mine and our show. Roland , what have you been up to. Ive seen since this decision came out not to indict the Police Officer you got active on twitter. It appears that youre calling for protests tonight. Absolutely. Not necessarily calling for protests but knowing full well that that is going to happen. You have seen commentary recently with folks like oreilly on fox, and on nbc they did a highly critical of the protest taking place in ferguson all about mike brown. But ive been saying its the culmination of anger, frustration with this legal justice system. It was eric garner, John Crawford in ohio. In los angeles we have a police chief who refuse s to release autopsy report. We have Victor Wright iii in , and now you can add tamir rice in cleveland. People are saying enough is enough with this police system. Enough is enough with these sort of things happening. This goes beyond body cameras. This is what people dont understand. In the case of eric garner, we saw it. We had the video. The outset we saw him being choked to death. This deals with police procedure. Police culture. It deals with this excessive relationship between police, d. A. And the public. And were playing that video now for the audience to watch. Roland, can white police ever win in a violent confrontation with black men . Well, they can. The question is how in this case here you have four Police Officers, and all of a sudden they want to arrest him, and so then talk to somebody. Thats a why Community Policing is so important. Lee brown, the former Commission Center atlanta also in houston talked about Community Policing. Talk to people and get them to under. White cops can do it. I grew up in an all black neighborhood, and there were white cops patrolling our neighborhood. We had white cops in the community there. Its a mart of training. This is the most under talked about aspect. Talking about buildings, and talk about dont burn anything down. We talk about people shooting from the freeways. But we have a fundamental problems with the culture, and our society, ali, gives police far too much leeway to use lethal force against its citizens. Roland, stay right there. These are pictures coming in to us from times square. You can see the gathering from people who are there. This is not what is going on right now. This is a short time ago. We have a mix of live pictures coming in. You can see the crowds in times square. And there was a demonstration that involved people lying on the floor. This is union square in new york. People are carrying signs. Roland is talking about the part of the story that is very national. But this is new york. New york is different from ferguson, missouri, and very different from most places in the country in many ways. Joining me to talk about it and how people are reacting to the decision is pat kiernan. He has been covering new york city for more than 15 years. Youve been covering this. You have the interesting case of covering this eric garner story because this is in your backyard, as well as watching how things went down in ferguson. What are the similarities to you . The similarities is we have white Police Officers, and black men who are in confrontation with police. But there are different in many ways. The video is a different aspect and why people thought there would be an indictment. Whether there would be a conviction or not is another question. But the videotape told a different story, and thats why there is universal surprise. But universal surprise plays out differently in new york than in ferguson. Tell us what youre seeing in new york city and what youre thinking about, and what youre seeing. What youre see something a very diverse police force. Its not always the case of a white officer and black person being questioned. But new york deals with these things more often. It knows how to handle big crowds. I was going through union square and nypd injuries coming in a dozen at a time just on stand by. This is a busy night with the Rockefeller ChristmasTree Lighting and a lot of protesters walking towards Rockefeller Center. So far the nypd has just enough presence to keep this as a fairly peaceful protest. This is live now, pictures from times squares. It looks like a tape from a few moments ago, but this is live. People are moving through. Rolands were you tweeting that people should go to Rockefeller Center to the Tree Lighting ceremony. I tweeted that i knew this was going to happen. I said dont be surprised if the Tree Lighting ceremony turns into an protest. It was natural. You have this major event in new york city. People also all across the country, and i knew knowing full well that cameras were going to be there, and this kind of an event would really overshadow that kind of major event. I got this up on the screen, roland, you have 301,000 followers. The tweet reads the big new york Christmas Tree lighting is tonight. How much you wanna bet that it becomes a massive eric garner protest . And maybe suggestif youre suggesting it, this is america. You have a right to do that. No, im not. It was a natural thing to say, wait a minute. Huge Tree Lighting ceremony. Major event. Thats what its going to turn in to. Its no surprise to me at all. Its and no surprise to me that youre going to see protests breaking out across the country. What were looking at, you know, bill oreilly saying this will go away next week. No, this is different. Ali, people dont recognize this is a generation of people who have had to deal with stop and frisk, who have had to deal with this issue. These are people who were 12, 14, who are now 20, 25, who have had to deal with this. Theyre saying enough is enough. This is not going away any time soon. Lit me ask you this. Let me ask you this. You and i have talked about ferguson many times. And we are agreed there is something askew in ferguson, a place that is twothirds black with less than a handful of police on a tiny not particularly well Trained Police force, where there are endless bad relations between blacks in ferguson and the police force. I dont know what the numbers are, but new york knows about this stuff better. Does it turn out differently here . First of all, when you say how does it turn out . The question is what are we speaking of. First of all new York Police Department is not historically diverse. Its more diverse than ferguson, but theyve had serious issues over the years. This is important, the new York Police Department has had major policing issues. Sean bell, and i dont remember the Police Officers name, but the Police Officer who shot by other cops. This cops dad was a cop. He said wait a minute. I was a part of this thing for 03 years and my son is shot as well . New york has had its own issues when it comes toagain, ali, its Police Culture. Its how police are trained. Its what their thinking is, how they react, how they respond. This thing is so far removed than just ferguson. Its deeply entrenched. Im going to be talking to the Deputy Police chief in dallas, who happens to be the National Chair of the black police association. Were going to talk about Police Culture, and were going to talk about what a black man feels about Police Culture when hes a very big part of it. Well be back with more on the grand jury decision not to indict the polic Police Officer who killed eric garner. Well be right back. A dirty deal. Struck at the heart of government. Egypt mismanaged its gas industry. Taking the country to the brink of economic ruin. Its obvious that egypt was being ripped off. Its basically saying to the israelis, look if you want to screw us, heres a tool you can use to screw us. Al jazeera exposes those who made a fortune betraying an entire nation. You dont feel that you owe an explanation to the egyptian people . No. No. Al jazeera investigates. Egypts lost power. December 17th. Roland was talking about the fact that while new york is bigger, more sophisticated better trained and more diverse police force than were dealing with in ferguson, missouri, its not without its problems. Roland outlined a number of issues corresponding with the time youve been the key angellers of news in new york city. Hes right. New york police have had their ups and downs. And not to minimize it, but police work is a messy business. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they get it wrong. There are two questions, one is a specific case by case analysis, and you can debate the evidence. And the second is the broader question where there is not problems. We get carried away with the details of what Michael Brown was doing or eric garner. We agree, the situation is large. The situation is large. The question of whether black men trust police, or whether police react differently to blacks or hispanics is a larger question. In your sense has new yorkhow has new york dealt with these things . New york has dealt with them at times, and dealt with them terribly at other times. Its gotten better under bill de blasio and bill brattan. Theyve made an effort to stop this practice of stop and frisk, where young men predominantly of color are stopped on the street and asked to prove that theyre not carrying weapons. Theyve identified the issue. Theyve talked a lot about it. Does this change a situation like this. Everyone has seen the videotape, and its a powerful videotape. As you pointed out there were many people who expected that there would have been an indictment. This is not a picture of stop and frisk. Tell me about this. There are these stops. It is a police tool that ray kelly, the Previous Police commissioner was fond of because they felt it was a Crime Prevention tool. But when you look at the numbers, overwhelmingly the people stopped were not white. Thats when people said wait a minute, youre not stopping young white men. Youre stopping young black and latino men. When you look at the Crime Statistics were stopping people proportionate to the Crime Statistics. Grand jury announced that officer Daniel Pantaleo will not face charges in the death of eric garner. Talk about the Peaceful Protesters who are lying down tweeting out the hashta hashtag i cant breathe. Randall pinkston join us now from new york wi more on that. Youve heard pat saying there was some surprise. Tell us how this grand jury worked . Well, first of all in all all over the country grand juries can, first of all, not to indict Police Officers involved in the use of deadly force. On the other hand as has been famously said by the former chief judge of the new york court of appeals a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. So the conclusion that people are left with if the prosecute center Staten Island had wanted some kind of indictment or charge brought against officer panaleo or other officers, he could have presented the evidence for the grand jury to reach that conclusion. That did not happen. The implications is, not with stand on the part of people who dont trust the system is that the prosecutor did not want to indict the Police Officers. Each with his own prosecutor. In richmond county, Staten Island, where eric garner died during an arrest by new York Police Officers, Daniel Donovan spent three months presenting evidence. Some call it highly unusual in homicide cases especially where there is video evidence. If you or i were on videotape putting our arm around someones neck, and that person then said i cant breathe and we sat on them and they died, we would be indicted in 30 seconds, and the grand jury would take more than a day possibly two. The difference here says howell and some other legal experts is that the potential defendant, Daniel Pantaleo, was a Police Officer. He was the one who used a choke hold to subdue garner. How does it shift when a Police Officer is accused of killing as opposed to when a civilian is accused of killing. Ideally it doesnt. But prosecutors work with Police Officers in just about every case. They collaborate a lot. When they seek an indictment for applier they dont want that indictment. Reporter in effect says howell prosecutors use grand juries as a shield to give the public the impress that the grand jury is making the decision when, in fact, the prosecution leads the panel to the conclusion that the prosecutor wants. 99 of the time theyll get an indictment, maybe more. Its a process that they control entirely. There is no judge in the room. Reporter only the prosecutor and the grand jurors. Right. Typically they seek indictment where is they want indictments. Reporter when prosecutor donovan said that he would take the case to a grand jury. He was quoted as saying that i will go where the evidence takes me without fear or favor. They say that a prosecutor c