Subject: Rep. Peter King: Health issues led to Eric Garner's death - Lucy McCalmont - POLITICO
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http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/peter-king-eric-garner-reaction-113319.html?hp=l3_4

Rep. Peter King: Health issues led to Eric Garner's death

'The police had no reason to know that he was in serious condition,' King says. | Getty

New York Rep. Peter King says Eric Garner would not have died from the police chokehold had he not been obese and suffering from other health problems.

“If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died from this. The police had no reason to know that he was in serious condition,” the New York Republican said Wednesday on CNN’s “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Protests erupted in New York City after a jury decided Wednesday not to return an indictment in the July death of Garner from being placed in a chokehold by police as they attempted to arrest him on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes.

(POLITICO Magazine: What I Did After Police Killed My Son)

King also dismissed assertions that the video showed Garner repeatedly telling officers he couldn’t breathe. Those words have become a rallying cry since his death.

“I know people were saying that he said 11 times or seven times, ‘I can’t breathe.’ Well, the fact is, if you can’t breathe, you can’t talk,” King said.

The congressman added that police hear “all the time” from people resisting arrest comments such as “you’re breaking my arm” or “you’re choking me.”

(Also on POLITICO: Paul cites high cigarette taxes in Eric Garner's death)

King, whose appearance came before Attorney General Eric Holder officially announced that the Justice Department would launch a separate federal investigation into Garner’s death, questioned whether there were any civil rights violations in the situation.

He pushed back against people who he said “are saying very casually this was done through racial motives.”

King said he has “no doubts” that if it were a white man, he’d be treated the exact same way and said the senior officer on the scene was a female African-American officer. “So I don’t know where the racial angle comes in,” the congressman said.

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