“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” For members of the public paying even the slightest bit of attention to the news over the past few years, those words are immediately recognizable as the last words of forty-three-year-old Eric Garner. In a video released mere days after the actual incident, police officers can be seen talking to Garner for a number of minutes before the interaction rapidly escalates as one of the officers grabs Garner around the neck and places him in a chokehold.
From what one can make out from the captured dialogue, it sounds like the police officers initially approached Garner to question him about alleged sales of untaxed cigarettes. At numerous points throughout the video, however, the man recording can be heard saying that the police officers were attempting to “lock somebody up for breaking up a fight.” Other reports tend to lend support to the recorder, affirming that Garner was breaking up a fight on the street minutes before police arrived.
While the reason behind the police stop may be unclear, the escalation of the situation and the officers’ use of force is painfully vivid. Prior to the attempted arrest, Garner can be heard saying, “every time you see me you wanna harass me. You wanna stop me . . . . I’m minding my business, please just leave me alone. I told you the last time, please just leave me alone.” Several minutes pass before the police attempt to arrest Garner, and what actually warrants the arrest is not readily apparent. As the officers begin to approach and arrest Garner, he starts to plead: “Please don’t touch me. No listen, don’t touch me, please.” The video shows Garner trying to pull away from the officers, but at no point does it appear that the father of six reacted with violence or force. In fact, as the police officer pulls him down into a chokehold, Garner’s hands are raised. Garner was taken down in the same pose that has become a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement: hands up.
The existence of this recording was vital in providing the public with at least some objective evidence as to what occurred in the moments leading up to Eric Garner’s death. Ramsey Orta, the man who hit “record,” seemed well aware of the importance of capturing the interaction. After the incident hit the newsstands, Orta was quoted stating, “It just gives me more power to not be afraid to pull out my camera anytime . . . . Even if they’re pushing me back, I might just keep going forward and if I get arrested, hey, I got something on camera.”
As technology and social justice movements proliferate at ever-increasing speeds, conversations about the right to record police interactions must naturally follow. This Comment seeks to examine various constitutional protections for this right that could expand beyond First Amendment claims.
