From the Streets of New York City Immediately After the Cop Who Murdered Eric Garner Was NOT INDICTED

December 3, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

New York City, Union Square, December 3, 2014, 6:00 p.m. “I can’t breathe!” “I can’t breathe!” “I can’t breathe!” Immediately after word came out that AGAIN grand jury was giving a stamp of approval to yet another public lynching of a Black man by the police, people gathered at the site of the killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island. The chants were loud and angry. They were Eric Garner’s last words as an NYPD cop choked him to death and all the world watched. The words resonated not just for the murder of Eric Garner but for the tens of millions of African-American and many, many more people from all walks of life who feel they cannot breathe.

People are stunned. How could this happen? Even after Ferguson? This one was caught live on TV. Everyone saw it. Even the pundits on TV can’t explain it. The murder of Eric Garner was the bitter fruit of the “broken windows” policy of new mayor Bill de Blasio and new police commissioner William Bratton. The man was supposedly selling loose cigarettes. The cops knew they were being filmed. The pig who choked Eric Garner to death smiled and waved at the camera after he killed Garner.

By 5 p.m., angry groups are gathering at different places throughout NYC. News media from around the world, including Europe and Latin America, are covering the protest at Union Square.

A young Black man is speaking bitterness to the crowd at Union Square. He says the only comfort he gets is that a white man today told him that when he sees a police, his blood boils. Two African-American 10th graders from Brooklyn were the first to leave their school and head to Union Square to protest. One says,”It’s Eric Garner. It’s Ferguson. This has to be stopped!” They plan to organize a walkout at their school tomorrow and they expect their principal to support them. A white man in his 50s is holding a sign saying “It’s de Blasio time and Eric Garner Is Dead.” It’s a reference to the fascist era when Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, popularly referred to as “Giuliani time.” He says “I had cautious hope that de Blasio would change things, but the death of Eric Garner is on his watch. The failure to indict is on his watch.”

A white woman holding a sign “Ferguson Is Everywhere; Police Brutality and Murder MUST STOP! revcom.us” says “Our humanity is at stake. White silence is complicity. I can’t breath either. The “Ferguson Is Everwhere” is everywhere in the crowd. Travis Morales from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network leads a mic check taking on Giuliani, who said on TV that the problem is “black on black” crime. Morales says “Stop changing the subject! The system has given our children no future and the system is killing our children.”

This afternoon, there was a die-in at Grand Central Terminal. Marchers from Union Square have headed uptown to Times Square. De Blasio has cancelled his appearance at Manhattan’s ceremonial Christmas tree lighting.

The mood is determined. The night is young.

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