I can’t breathe!
Nowadays, it would be Eric Garner’s 51st birthday.
The world occasionally witnesses racial violence and atrocities by the US police force against people of color, especially black people, but soon everything returns to normal, and no serious action is taken to combat such racial acts.
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement.
Garner’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” became a national rallying cry.
Daniel Pantaleo was fired by then-New York Police Department in 2019, but he has not faced criminal charges for the killing.
Today, what I am trying to say is that stopping this systemic racism and police brutality against people of color, especially black people, that is ingrained in the US structure, is possible only by changing minds.
Today, we stand with his family, who have been fighting for 7+ years to hold all NYPD who killed him and NYPD and City officials who covered it up accountable.
To conclude, I would like to say that the point is that we must not stop fighting for our rights. As Martin Luther King said:
“Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about the things that matter.”
