I Can’t Breathe: The Killing that Started a Movement

The incredible story of the death of Eric Garner, the birth of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and the new fault lines of race, protest, policing and the power of people.

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in New York City after a police officer put him in what has been described as a “chokehold” during an arrest for selling “loosies,” or single cigarettes. The final moments of his life were captured on video and seen by millions, sparking an international series of protests that built into the transformative “Black Lives Matter” movement. Weeks after Garner’s death, two New York City police officers were killed by a young black man from Maryland, in what he claimed was revenge for Garner’s death. Those killings in turn led to police protests, clashes with New York’s new liberal mayor, and an eventual work slow-down.

Matt Taibbi, bestselling author and “the best polemic journalist in America” explores the roots and aftermath of Eric Garner’s death and tells a compelling story of the crime, the grand jury, the media circus, the murder of the police, and the protests from every side. The result is a riveting work of literary journalism that breaks new ground and provides a masterful narrative of urban America, the perversion of its policing and a brilliant examination of the racial tensions that threaten to tear it apart.