On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer. The video of the Staten Island man pleading, “I can’t breathe,” caused national outrage and demands for police reform.
The police targeted Garner for a minor offense: selling cigarettes. Garner had reportedly broken up a fight just before they arrived. His encounter with them shows Black people’s lives are at risk when we interact with policing.
Eric Garner’s story shows how deadly low-level arrests can be. In the first six months of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, arrests for such crimes increased 25%. Police singled out Black communities. What’s worse, research shows that police are using chokeholds at about the same rate as they did a decade ago. So what’s really changed?
Chokehold bans in the wake of Eric Garner’s death were supposed to save lives, but policy and police behavior are two different things. Reforms haven’t solved the problem because the police often don’t respect them.
If policy surrounding policing changes but police behavior doesn’t, that dishonors the lives that have been taken. Eric Garner and the many victims like him deserve more.