LATEST BLOW TO BLM
Activists vow they won’t give up fight
Six years ago this week, neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted on all charges in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, sparking a national outcry that found an outlet on social media with rallying cry: #BlackLivesMatter.
The movement grew a year later when a Missouri cop fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, setting off waves of street protests that included tense confrontations with police. The collective pain was even sharper when, a few months later in November 2014, 12year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by a cop in Ohio who thought the boy’s toy gun was the real thing.
Over the next few years, the Black Lives Matter movement was front-andcenter as a series of deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police or in police custody made national headlines and raised demands in communities of color for answers and accountability.
There was Sandra Bland, 28, who hung herself in a Texas jail cell three days after a state trooper’s allegedly racially motivated remarks during a traffic stop; Philando Castile, 32, shot seven times after being pulled over by a Minnesota cop, the emotional aftermath of which was caught on camera by his girlfriend; Botham Jean, 26, shot and killed by a Dallas cop in a case of mistaken identity; and Alton Sterling, 32, who Baton Rouge officers shot multiple times at close range after he reportedly reached for his gun, to name just a few.
At the epicenter of this movement, as well, was the July 17, 2014, death of Eric Garner.
His desperate cries of “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” — his dying gasps after NYPD Officer Daniel Panteleo put him in a chokehold to wrestle him to the street — became a protest chant at BLM marches nationwide.
Over five years, as the Department of Justice weighed bringing charges against Pantaleo, Black Lives Matter activists pressed to keep Garner’s cause in the headlines.
On Tuesday, the feds announced they would not pursue a case against Pantaleo. The day before BLM protesters were outside the doors of Justice Department’s Washington office.
“It’s a letdown, most definitely,” said BLM Greater New York Chairman Hawk Newsome, who bused more than 30 members to D.C. on Monday to push for justice for the Garner family.
Newsome said on the bus ride back to the group’s Harlem headquarters, he actually thought the feds might hold Pantaleo accountable.
“We were like, we’re going to do it, this is going to happen. We were celebrating,” he said. “I texted with (Garner’s mother) Gwen Carr, and she said, ‘Thanks Hawk, I really appreciate what you and the rest of the supporters did on my behalf. I am so proud of all of you.’ ”
Even though the outcome wasn’t what Newsome wanted, he said the movement isn’t giving up.
“You think of these stories, the major stories that have happened in New York, and we’ve been there for every one,” he said. “I’m taking my anger and putting it into this movement. I might be sad for a moment, but I’m going to continue to fight. Each time we get knocked down we fight harder.”