Dan Donovan’s failure to obtain what should have been an easy, slam-dunk indictment in the Eric Garner case has produced some nongermane reaction from a large grass-roots movement that quickly and impressively took to the streets.

Linking Garner to Brown is tenuous. I do think it’s legitimate to question how prosecutors in this country apply different levels of effort, spin and emphasis during the secret grand jury process but the melded nature of reaction to the two cases feels forced. Unhelpful.

Race certainly has a place in the discussion but the object of ire in Garner’s case should start with Donovan. No need to go to Times Square. Or the West Side Highway. If the energetic and diverse masses seeking justice for Eric Garner ever get around to developing a cohesive strategy to affect change before fizzling out, it should chase and hound Donovan until he quits his elected position and never convenes a grand jury again.

Donovan runs the Staten Island District Attorney’s office and didn’t want a police officer to bear even minimal responsibility for what the medical examiner officially determined in August to be a “homicide” in Garner’s death.

Donovan (like any prosecutor in jurisdictions that use a grand jury system to bring criminal charges) can indict a ham sandwich if he‘s so inclined. Cops are almost always gonna get professional courtesy beyond what the ham sandwich gets of course but Donovan had the balls to personally wreck a case he’s obligated to handle without pro-police bias. He rigged the outcome to protect the cop despite a videotape that makes clear the primary aggressor in Garner’s arrest caused his death. Yes, Donovan can hide behind state law that keeps two months worth of grand jury machinations secret despite a phony claim he wants to make aspects of it public. But protestors need to sharpen focus on who guided the prosecutorial process straight into the ground. Doing things like laying down in front of the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic and disrupting train terminals may seem like organic, creative forms of expression but they’re not helpful in drumming out the crooked power brokers that allow these things to be repeated. Donovan should not carry on without reprisal from the public.

Thankfully, we have a vibrant fourth estate in this city and got some glimpses into Donovan’s tank job. The Daily News deserves Pulitzer consideration for its work on the Garner story. A day after Garner’s death, columnist Denis Hamill spent part of the day with Garner’s widow at their home. Through her words, Hamill painted a wonderful portrait of the victim. Just before that, the News secured cell phone video of the incident shot by bystander Ramsey Orta. Those two pieces of journalism personalized Garner in a way that made a lot of people outraged about his death. When the medical examiner did its job without taint from politicization and concluded homicide, an indictment in this case appeared even easier than a ham sandwich. But Orta told the News in a story printed last Friday that Donovan staffers presiding over grand jury proceedings on the day he was called had little interest in what he saw as he shot the video. Orta said prosecutors steered the conversation toward an effort to taint Garner’s character. And Orta’s. Donovan ran that show. He’s a prosecutor. He’s not a defense attorney.

So, everybody that can’t breathe from this case right now needs to find some breath to shout at Donovan for not doing the job he was elected to do.