Chokehold protesters to drive, not walk, on Verrazano bridge
Demonstrators protesting the chokehold death of a man in police custody will drive, not walk, across a busy bridge to avoid any traffic problems, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Saturday.
Sharpton announced last week that he would lead an Aug. 23 march across the bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island to seek justice for Eric Garner, who died after police tried to arrest him on Staten Island for selling loose cigarettes. Several elected officials complained that a march across the bridge would close off car traffic, massively inconveniencing people on Staten Island and elsewhere in the region.
“The issue is not the bridge,” Sharpton told supporters Saturday at the Harlem headquarters of his National Action Network. “The issue is the homicide that no one has told this family or the community what they are going to do about it and who is going to be charged.”