The medical examiner ruled this a homicide.
The Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases are very different and should be judged independently. In my opinion the Eric Garner case is much more troubling as the city of New York will end up paying millions of dollars to the Garner family for at the minimum serious police department policy violations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/nyregion/i-cant-breathe-is-re-echoed-in-voices-of-fury-and-despair.html
