I Can’t Breathe

Less than two months ago, somewhere between the hot surface of concrete and an unforgiving arm around his neck, rang these muffled words: “I can’t breathe.” Repeatedly, “I can’t breathe,” and still a New York City police officer’s chokehold continued to siphon away the life of Eric Garner. Those cries fell upon the deaf ears of those sworn to protect and serve. Minutes later, he was dead.

Witnesses say Garner had just broken up a fight. The police officers confronted Garner for selling untaxed cigarettes. Weighing over 350 pounds, it is unlikely that the asthmatic Garner was going to run away from the five officers who surrounded him. It is equally unlikely that the unarmed Garner posed such a threat that deadly force in the form of a chokehold was at all warranted.

When I watch the raw footage of his death, I cannot help but call it a public execution. I see a 43-year-old man who is clearly frustrated with being harassed by the police. Those police officers, rather than arrest him and allow him to face charges in the court of law, decided to use deadly force, ensuring that his children would never see him alive again.

The video is depressing, but if there is a silver lining in this unjustified killing, it is that the video allows the entire world to become a witness to the confrontation. It is pure, unadulterated police brutality. No matter how much the New York City Police Department or the right-wing media would like to spin the story in order to justify this killing, they can’t. The tape does not lie.

But a video camera could not save Eric Garner’s life. The 400 years of systematic dehumanization and exclusion that manifested in his racial profiling and death are forces that no piece of technology can overcome in short order. But the video camera did save his character before it too could be assassinated by the media and the New York City Police Department.

Notice how there is no ambiguity and no room for fabrication of facts in this case. This time, there is no room for Facebook pictures of gang signs being thrown up or hoodies being worn. No room for toxicology reports suggesting that Garner was under the influence at the time of his death. No room for reports that he reached for the police officer’s gun or violently resisted arrest. No, those tricks did not and will not work this time. Eric Garner’s character was saved by this video. This is the reason I believe that his death was ruled a homicide, rather than swept under the rug. His family and his community can confidently march forward seeking justice against those who took his life.

The arm that strangled Eric Garner is no different than the noose that strangled countless young black men throughout this nation’s history. People of color and those who value justice across this nation no longer accept extrajudicial killings as a part of life. Indeed, the fire this time that raged across Ferguson, Mo., over the summer in response to the shooting death of Michael Brown should serve as a message to the rest of this country that this nation cannot move forward until sweeping changes to local law enforcement are made.

A petition posted to the official White House website, calling for the creation of a law that would set aside funds and require all state, county, and local police to wear a camera while on duty, is a good place to start. We need this law. We need this law to deter police brutality, profiling, and abuse of power. We need this law so that no pundit can tarnish the memory of someone who can no longer speak for himself or herself.

We need this law, once and for all, so that the next time a young black man says he can’t breathe, the police officer grabbing his neck will think twice about using deadly force.

Dennis O. Ojogho ’16, a Crimson editorial writer, is a government concentrator in Winthrop House.