Outrage on Top of Outrage: Police Commander Said Murder of Eric Garner Was “Not a Big Deal”

May 17, 2019 | revcom.us

 

After NYPD pig Daniel Pantaleo brought down Eric Garner with a chokehold in 2014 as he cried out “I can’t breathe,” another cop on the scene texted their commander that Garner was “most likely DOA”—and the commander’s response was: “Not a big deal.”^* This was made public for the first time during the NYPD procedural hearing now going on involving Pantaleo.

Eric Garner was 43 years old when he was murdered, married for over 20 years to his wife, Esaw, with a son starting college, five other children, and two grandchildren. He was someone with a big heart and a great deal to give. His friends called him “Big E” and “Teddy Bear,” a generous man who helped settle disputes among the people. One friend remembered, “He had a hug and smile for everybody. He was always trying to keep the peace.” To the pigs, all this was “not a big deal.”

NOT A BIG DEAL!!! These four words totally capture the utter callousness of these pigs and of their entire system, for whom the incarceration of literally millions upon millions of people over the past decades is NOT A BIG DEAL… for whom evictions of hundreds of thousands of women, especially Black and Latino, is NOT A BIG DEAL… for whom the poisoning of countless children by lead—and more than that, the generations of youth that are condemned to oblivion even before they are born—is NOT A BIG DEAL.

As Bob Avakian says in his filmed speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, after naming just some of the thousands and thousands, especially Black, Latino and Native American, murdered by the police:

If this were the only thing wrong with this system, it would be more than enough reason to sweep it off the Earth!

 

---

* “‘Not a Big Deal,’ Police Commander Said as Eric Garner Died,” New York Times, 5/16/19. [back]

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Avakian: "'Not A Big Deal?!?' Or Reason Enough To Overthrow The Damn System!"

In summer 2018 Bob Avakian spoke about the outrageous murders perpetrated by police in the speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution.