Photo: AP

It’s well known that police officers who commit violent crimes while on the job are rarely convicted, charged, or even disciplined by their own department. Sometimes one will get a slap on the wrist for a less serious infringement.

On Monday, the New York Daily News reported that the NYPD disciplined one of its own, officer Daniel Pantaleo, for “a bogus stop, question and frisk.”

Pantaleo was docked two vacation days for the infraction.

You may remember Pantaleo as the cop whom citizen-journalist Ramsey Orta caught on camera in July 2014 placing Eric Garner in a chokehold, killing him. Garner, who was asthmatic, can be heard on the tape repeatedly pleading with the officers that he can’t breath, to no response. Garner had initially been stopped in Staten Island on suspicions that he was selling loose cigarettes.

The powerful, visual evidence of Garner’s cruel treatment at the hands of the NYPD inspired protests nationwide.

These protests reignited in December 2014, after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo.

Federal prosecutors may still choose to open a civil rights case against Pantaleo.

The interaction for which Pantaleo was actually disciplined took place in June 2012, two years before the death of Eric Garner.

Typically, the NYPD posts its decisions to penalize officers for the media to review within several weeks of the case being adjudicated. But in this instance, the Daily News reports, the NYPD waited almost a year to do so. It’s not clear why.

The NYPD told the Daily News that Pantaleo was guilty of conducting an unnecessary frisk, but that the stop itself was justified.