Image credit: Jeff Hopkins

Three years have passed since Eric Garner’s choking death at the hands of police officer Daniel Pantaleo, and the episode remains unresolved. The grand jury’s secrecy and its decision not to indict anyone, along with Comptroller Scott Stringer’s unusually swift civil settlement with the Garner Family, have left the public with insufficient answers and a sense that justice has been denied. Civil rights organizations and governmental investigators have made additional attempts to obtain information, but all have failed. The public today knows little more than it did the day after Garner’s death. The absence of a satisfying resolution of the Garner case continues to fuel public unrest and a sense that without a public resolution there can be no peace. (more…)

Lyons Pool. Image Credit: Google Maps.

Parents of deceased son win damages against the City. On July 13, 2011, Bohdan Vitenko drowned in Lyons Pool in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island. Lyons pool is owned and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Vitenko, then 21-years old, was exercising in the pool with his friend Jonathan Proce for an extended period of time. The Olympic-sized pool measured 165 feet by 100 feet. It was 3.5 feet deep around its edges and 5 feet deep in the center. Both young men succumbed to shallow water blackout, a loss of consciousness followed by low oxygen to the brain. The phenomenon is typically caused by hyperventilating just before a long-breath dive. There were two lifeguards on duty, one of whom was 40 meters away at the time Vitenko drowned. (more…)

In August 2018, City Planning’s Chair Marisa Lago appointed Anita Laremont as the new Executive Director of the Planning Department. Laremont joined the Department as General Counsel in 2014 and has served New York City and State in public positions for over 35 years. (more…)