Image: Eric Garner
On July 17th, 2014 Eric Garner died in New York City. He was selling single cigarettes from packs. Suddenly a NYPD officer put him in a chokehold while he was being arrested.
He said "I can't breathe" relating to George Floyd which relates to me because I have asthma and sometimes I can’t even get a breath, I know how it feels.
It was made illegal in New York for police to do a chokehold in 1993.
This story takes me to when my mom was picking me and my brother up from school and she was harassed by the police. This has happened before, she was assaulted by the police. Every time my innocent mom sees the cops she has anxiety. When cops are outside my mom couldn’t even walk out or my mom would have flashbacks.
As a black child I was scared because “they don't see you as a child they see you as a man” said by moma Tiny. Corrupt cops are really an issue. Last week a guy from my neighborhood almost died, but thankfully the whole community was there and were screaming “don't shoot’. He had his hands up and was doing everything they were telling him to. But then again the cops just wanted to shoot for fun and this isn't nothing new for the cops, this is a routine.
Eric was a peaceful man with a different hustle and way of “gettin it.” He was married and his friends would call him the neighborhood peace maker. He was the father of six children, had three grandchildren, and at the time of his death had a 3-month-old child.
In conclusion the only way a black man will not get killed is by fitting in and being a gentrifier and we still get killed to this day. Peace and love to Garner's family. If you were raised in the hood and black you would feel this pain. Good bye.