'I Am Baffled and At a Loss'

Most of us don't know what went on in the courtroom where the grand jury deliberated whether or not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold-induced death of Eric Garner. Still, the decision comes as a surprise to many who thought that the evidence overwhelmingly called for indictment. Given that the New York City Police Department has a policy against chokeholds, that a video exists clearly showing Pantaleo violating that policy, and that a coroner's report ruled Garner's death a homicide, the jury's decision doesn't seem to make sense.

"I am baffled and at a loss to understand this," says Susan Abraham, law professor at New York Law School. "This doesn’t have the conflicting eyewitness testimony they had in Ferguson." This also was not an instance where an officer was under threat, she adds: The facts are that Garner didn't resist, he clearly said he couldn't breathe when Pantaleo and four other officers restrained him, and he didn't reach for a weapon.