America’s top law enforcement officer Attorney General Eric Holder says “the Justice Department will proceed with a federal civil rights investigation” into the death of Eric Garner, after a grand jury failed to return an indictment against the white cop who killed him.  Holder promised an “independent, thorough, fair and expeditious investigation.”

Holder said this shortly after a Staten Island, New York grand jury declined to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo over Garner’s death. 

“Prosecutors will conduct an independent, thorough, fair and expeditious investigation,” Holder said.  “The department will conduct a complete review of the material gathered during the local investigation.”

“We’ve all seen the video of Mr. Garner’s death,” Holder said.  “His death, of course, was a tragedy.  All lives must be valued.  All lives.”

Indeed, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has increasingly become the refrain of protesters in the United States, after a series of blatantly racist incidents involving white cops killing black suspects.  Already this week, there was a funeral for a 12-year old black boy who was gunned down by cop while playing with toy gun in a park near Cleveland, Ohio.  It wasn’t too far from the Wal-Mart store where a young black man who was holding a toy gun he was about to purchase was killed by police.  In each case, cops didn’t bother to observe or investigate – they showed up, saw a black person, and immediately opened fire.

But one of the most infamous was the killing of 18-year old Michael Brown, murdered by white officer Darren Wilson on the street of a suburb outside Saint Louis, left uncovered for hours in front of horrified residents.  The atrocity was compounded last month when another grand jury failed to indict the killer cop.  Holder is also conducting a federal civil rights investigation of that killing as well.

The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has been in use since 2012, when self-styled neighborhood watch moron George Zimmerman shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin while the kid walked to his dad’s house in central Florida.  Zimmerman also got away with it, and he’s not even a cop (although his daddy is a well-connected judge).