"I can't breathe" has been chanted across New York City, written on protest signs and hashtagged on Facebook and Twitter. Those were the words African-American Eric Garner said as a Caucasian Staten Island police officer put him in a choke hold in July of this year after being confronted for allegedly selling loose cigarettes on the sidewalk.
The grand jury decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Garner after the medical examiner ruled the death a "homicide" plus the spreading close range cell phone video of the incident has sparks passion in hearts across the city, as peaceful protests cropped up in the Staten Island Tompkinsville neighborhood and throughout the city, according to The New York Times via MSN.
"You can see the video," Staten Island resident Diane Moss told The New York Times. "It's one thing if it's 'he said, she said,' but when you see the video - the guy wasn't resisting."
"We had a video. How can we win? We can't win," said a man who called himself James.
President Barack Obama did not speak specifically to the case details from the capital, but said the decision not to indict Pantaleo would only fuel the frustrations of African-Americans who feel unfairly treated by the legal system.
"When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that is a problem, and it's my job as president to help solve it," Obama said, according to The New York Times.
The frustration extended to other government leaders, especially within New York.
"The failure to indict is a stunning miscarriage of justice, and makes clear that equal protection under the law does not exist for all Americans," said Brooklyn Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, a member of New York's congressional delegation, according to The New York Times. Jeffries is one of many leaders calling for a federal investigation into the death of Eric Garner.
"What more does America need to see?" Jeffries told The New York Times. "We are better than this as a country."
Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, called Garner's death "a tragedy that demands accountability."
"Nobody unarmed should die on a New York City street corner for suspected low-level offenses," she told The New York Times.
Protesters lay on the ground at Grand Central station to symbolize black men killed by the police. Protesters passed the tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center, but did not disrupt the barricaded event, according to The New York Times.
A Legal Aid staff member, Rosalyn Warren, grew up on Staten Island and recalled that white neighborhoods were off limits to her as a little black girl. "Different year, same faces, same views," she told The New York Times.
"History," she said, "was not going to be made on Staten Island today."
