eric garner
Officer Daniel Pantaleo wanted to arrest Garner, a forty-three-year-old black man, for selling individual cigarettes on the streets of Staten Island. Garner denied he’d been breaking the law, and when Pantaleo came at him with handcuffs, moved his hands away and said, ‘Don’t touch me please’. Pantaleo jumped on Garner’s back, grabbed his neck, and pushed his head facedown against the pavement. Garner screamed in a whisper, ‘I can’t breathe’, eleven times.
Officer Daniel Pantaleo wanted to arrest Garner, a forty-three-year-old black man, for selling individual cigarettes on the streets of Staten Island. Garner denied he’d been breaking the law, and when Pantaleo came at him with handcuffs, moved his hands away and said, ‘Don’t touch me please’. Pantaleo jumped on Garner’s back, grabbed his neck, and pushed his head facedown against the pavement.
Garner screamed in a whisper eleven times… “I CAN’T BREATHE”
The New York City Medical Examiner’s office ruled that Garner’s death was a homicide, caused by ‘compression of the neck’ - a procedure known as a ‘chokehold’.