‘I Can’t Breathe’: Eric Garner Remembered on 10th Anniversary of Choking Death

NEW YORK (AP) — Wednesday marks 10 years since Eric Garner was killed by New York City cops whose cry of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry.

A video recorded by a bystander showed Garner uttering the phrase while in a police chokehold, sparking Black Lives Matter protests in New York and across the country. More demonstrations followed weeks later when 18-year-old black man Michael Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on August 9, 2014.

Six years later, George Floyd was recorded saying those very same words, pleading for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against his neck, sparking a brand new wave of mass protests.

Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, planned to guide a march in her son’s honor Wednesday morning on Staten Island, the borough where Garner died after being pulled over by Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Carr told NY1 she remains to be attempting to keep her son’s name in the general public eye and fighting for justice.

Garner died on July 17, 2014, after a confrontation with Pantaleo and other officers who suspected he was selling untaxed loose cigarettes on the road.

The video shows Pantaleo, who’s white, together with his arm across the neck of Garner, who’s black, as they struggled and fell to the pavement. “I can’t breathe,” Garner gasped repeatedly before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

New York authorities determined that Pantaleo used a chokehold, which had been banned by the NYPD for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, and town medical expert’s office ruled Garner’s death a homicide. But neither state nor federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Pantaleo or another officer on the scene.

“Even if we could prove that Officer Pantaleo’s hold on Mr. Garner constituted unreasonable force, we would still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Pantaleo acted willfully in violation of the law,” Richard Donoghue, then the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in announcing in 2019 that no federal civil rights charges could be filed.

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Pantaleo was dismissed in 2019 following a disciplinary investigation by the police.

Garner’s family settled a lawsuit against town of New York for $5.9 million, but continued to hunt justice in the shape of a forensic investigation into Garner’s death in 2021.

The court proceedings, held virtually because of the pandemic, were conducted under a provision of town charter that enables residents to petition the court for a public inquiry into “any alleged breach or neglect of duty in relation to the property, government or affairs of the city.” The purpose of the inquiry was to ascertain the record, not to search out anyone guilty or innocent.

One of the lawyers representing the Garner family was civil rights lawyer Alvin Bragg, who was then running for Manhattan district attorney, a position he won in November of that very same 12 months.

Bragg, who this 12 months successfully prosecuted former President Donald Trump for bribing a porn actor, on Tuesday praised Carr and other members of Garner’s family.

“While I continue to be deeply saddened by the loss of Eric Garner, I am in awe of his family’s strength and moved by their commitment to using his legacy as a force for change,” Bragg said. “Their courage continues to inspire me as your district attorney, and I promise to always honor Mr. Garner’s memory by working toward a safer, more just, and more equal city.”

Former police officer Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Tuesday that he remembers Garner’s death “like it was yesterday.”

Adams, who was serving as Brooklyn borough president on the time of Garner’s death, said he prays that “an Eric Garner situation” won’t ever occur again.