Summary Of The Public Killing Of Eric Garner

On July 17, 2014, 23 old, Ramsey Orta recorded the public killing of Eric Garner. The recording displays a six foot three inch, three hundred sixty pound unarmed black male being boxed in between a convenience store, located on a busy New York street and uniform as well as plain clothed officers. You can hear multiple offices persistently questioning Garner before the tattooed officer on his far right wearing a black fitted baseball cap takes charge of the situation. All though out the recording Garners body language shows him to be deeply vexed by the officers, however, not aggressive. The next scene depicts the officers on Garners far left attempt to put Garner in handcuffs without verbally warning Garner what he was doing before making the physical contact. Garner then request that the officer not touch him as he pulls

He often uses his hands to exemplify his point that he has done nothing wrong and that the officers are targeting him based on their own prejudices. Garner never steps towards the officers, and he never makes attempts to physically harm anyone in the video. His body language also portrays that he felt cornered by the eight surrounding officers. Garner was backed against a wall, as multiple police officers persistently questioned him about selling illegal cigarettes. The circle of officers then encloses around Garner. An off-duty officer then attempts to arraign Eric Garner without any verbal warning; Garner then tries to back the officer away from him. As a result of this, the officer places Garner in a choke hold. Garner then pleads for his life exclaiming, “I CAN’T BREATHE!” several different times. Despite Garner begging for his life, the officer never lets up to allow him the chance to catch his breath. The final scene of the video shows a detective backing away the crowd as Garner’s body lies motionless on the