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Edrik Lopez, a professor of English, has started a petition on Change.org, demanding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder “call the hold - applied by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo onto Eric Garner - a choke.”
On Thursday, "NPR speculated that the Staten Island D.A. wanted to punt the case to the Feds as it is a ridiculously hot button issue,” Lopez told the Daily Voice on Friday. “Whether this is true or not, the D.A. did buy the lie that the hold was a ‘headlock’ as opposed to the choke we all saw.”
Aside from his work for the Jesuit university’s English department, Lopez is also a brown belt in the martial arts’ discipline of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a rank that has taken him more than eight years to reach.
Lopez’s argument stems from his work in the martial arts.
“The hold applied onto Eric Garner by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo is called a ‘rear naked choke’ in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, judo, mixed martial arts, catch wrestling, sambo, and other submission-oriented martial arts,” Lopez’s petition says.
He explained that “the petition started as a response to the defense of the NYPD officer calling the hold a ‘headlock.’”
“I was flabbergasted the Staten Island District Attorney bought this lie. Any martial artist could clearly see that initially the officer had palm to shoulder to restrain,” Lopez said, describing what his school calls a “pliers choke.”
Responses to the change.org petition seem to agree.
“I'm a judo black belt and a 9 year Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner brown belt. I'm also in law enforcement I recognized this technique as a choke,” said Jason Mcdonald, a petition signee.
“I am a submission grappler and know first hand how powerful these techniques can be. It's important that those who have this kind of training, especially those in law enforcement, use it with proper restraint,” another signee, Brian Mikkelson wrote.
As of Friday evening, less than 24 hours it was posted, the petition had compiled about 80 signatures.
Garner, who was black, died July 17 on Staten Island after he was subdued by Pantaleo while selling loose cigarettes. A New York grand jury this week declined to press charges against Pantaleo in the death. Many have compared the case to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August. A grand jury also declined to press charges against the officer involved, Darren Wilson.
Lopez said his goal is to “educate the public by bringing together people who practice these chokes that say, 'yes, it was a choke and we call it this or that at our school.'"
“If Holder calls it a choke, then the civil rights division can look into mistakes, intentional or not, that would allow other NYC district attorneys, Brooklyn most likely or even Staten Island itself, to at least charge the officer with using an illegal hold to subdue a human being,” Lopez said.
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