An Interview with the Founder of WeCopwatch
On March 13, 2019, The Verge ran the story of Ramsey Orta, who filmed the infamous video of his friend Eric Garner being murdered by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. Orta’s video showed Garner explaining that he done nothing wrong; it showed Pantaleo ignoring those words and administering an illegal chokehold; it showed Garner getting thrown to the ground, faceplanted into the pavement; and it showed Garner saying “I can’t breathe” 11 times before dying on the New York City street.
At the time of The Verge article, Orta was still incarcerated — at Groveland Correctional Facility — and awaiting a release date of December 2019. He had hoped his video would bring justice for his friend, and maybe for people of color in New York and across the nation. It didn’t, though the cries of I Can’t Breathe were heard around the world.
As Garner’s daughter Erica and many others fought for Pantaleo’s indictment and the end of stop and frisk and police brutality, and T-shirts and hashtags immortalized Garner’s dying words, the NYPD fought to silence — or even eliminate — the man who taped the murder.
