Eric Garner's family Saturday thanked the thousands of protesters who have taken to the streets across the nation in outrage after a police officer was not indicted in the 43-year-old New Yorker's death.

"It is just so awesome to see how the crowds were out there," said Garner's mother, Gwen Carr. "They are out there. They are standing for my son. My heart is overflowing with joy. It's just a gracious feeling."

The past few weeks have not been kind to law enforcement. Grand juries from Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York decided not to file charges against Officer Darren Wilson in Missouri and the officers involved in the death of Eric Garner in New York.

While the officers in both cases have been cleared, it’s been a public relations nightmare for

The white New York City police officer whose choke hold led to the death of an unarmed black man has been sued three times for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of other blacks he and fellow cops arrested.

A grand jury decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo on Wednesday in the death of Eric Garner, 43, the man he wrestled to the ground during an attempted arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island sidewalk in July, sparked waves of angry though largely peaceful demonstrations in several cities.

Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton has labelled the US grand jury system "broken" and called on the federal government to address it.

Earlier the US justice department said it will investigate the death of a black man placed in an apparent chokehold by a New York police officer.

Activists have called for a march in Washington next week as a result.

A federal probe into police in Cleveland found a pattern of "unreasonable force".

It was "completely outrageous" to say racism was at play in the death of Eric Garner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told "Fox & Friends."

There were two reasons that proved race was not involved when Garner died last July in Staten Island as police officer Daniel Pantaleo used a chokehold while trying to arrest him, Giuliani maintained — a black sergeant at the scene, and that any suspect under similar circumstances would have been treated the same.

President Barack Obama said the decision by a New York grand jury not to indict the police officer who ultimately killed Eric Garner “speaks to a larger issue” in America.

Some responded with outrage after a grand jury opted against the indictment on Wednesday. The police officer put a chokehold on Garner during the arrest and it ended up killing him.

The Justice Department is planning to conduct a federal investigation into the chokehold death of an unarmed black man after a New York City grand jury declined to indict the white police officer who performed the move, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

In 2010, the New York State Legislature passed a law raising taxes on cigarettes purchased in New York City to $5.85 per pack of 20 cigarettes.
Fast-forward four years: A U.S. senator is blaming the politician that created that law for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in New York City in July 2014.
"I do blame the politician," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, explained on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We put our police in a dangerous situation with bad laws."

President Obama announced this week that, in response to Ferguson and other cases of cops killing unarmed black men, the White House would call for $75 million to make 50,000 body cameras available to police departments across the country.

But on Wednesday, a grand jury declined to indict New York police officers in the choking death of Eric Garner -- a case in which there was footage. And the timing couldn't really be worse for the White House.

After calls from New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Attorney General Eric Holder and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a federal investigation into the death of Eric Garner.

Demanding a federal investigation is a good way for politicians like de Blasio, Schumer and Gillibrand to show their concern about police violence. Unfortunately it's not likely to bring justice for Garner.

Simple murder and manslaughter aren't federal crimes. But killing someone can be one in special circum