Robert Bianchi appeared on the O’Reilly Factor to discuss that a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for the “chokehold” applied to Eric Garner when Garner resisted an arrest for allegedly unlawfully selling cigarettes.

By Robert A. Bianchi, Esq.:  The partners at The Bianchi Law Group have worked as assistant prosecutors, the head County Prosecutor, criminal defense attorneys, and civil rights/police practices attorneys. We have worked with police, sued police, and handled every aspect of police work that a lawyer deals with. We have obvious experience as former prosecutors and defense attorneys on court procedures, criminal justice issues, and how cases are evaluated, prosecuted and defended. We believe that it is important to look at how this case (and others like it) can be a catalyst for change for the betterment of us all.

In all, this and other recent cases illustrate that there is a lot of work to do with police and community relations.  But, it is a 2-way street. Both the community and police need to come together to establish relationships in a far more productive way than has thus far occurred.

What this case also evidences is a breathtaking lack of knowledge about how our criminal justice system works.  I have listened to civic leaders, politicians, and people in the media on both “sides” of these issues who have much to say, but many have very little background to provide a cogent expert analysis of the problems cases like this present.  It is unfortunate there is such a lack of understanding of legal process and it has caused a tremendous amount of unneeded and in fact destructive, dialogue.  At The Bianchi Law Group, we have specific programs that train and lecture to civic groups, police, and community organizations about these issues, so that a dialogue can hopefully begin from a more informed perspective.  Our Police Practices Program and Criminal Justice Program are specifically designed to discuss this and other similar cases.

We passionately believe in bringing the civic and police communities together and have worked toward this goal for years.  Our programs are free of charge and we would be honored to work with any group that is interested in moving forward from these tragedies to hopefully come to a place where we can all learn lessons to improve our communities.  Feel free to visit our The Bianchi Law Group website and click on the programs tab on for further details.