While the book was well-written and researched, I will not be promoting this author. The book has many merits, so I regret that the author’s actions are detrimental to the work.

A really hard and heartbreaking read! An incredibly informative and shocking story that will stay in the hearts of many. Worth a read to learn more about the horrible injustices of the US police but it’s a tough pill to swallow, so be warned!

Another very good book by Taibbi. He's often at his best when writing about criminal justice and policing (I'd also highly recommend "The Divide", which is even better than this book). A well-written, scathing account of American "justice", it digs down into systemic issues and problems that need addressing and fixing. Unfortunately, as we now know, certain changes were impossible during the Trump years, and as a result many more lives have been ruined/ended by injustice.

[It's a shame that Taibbi isn't as good anymore online or in his shorter works as he is in his books.]

.at first thought one may feel that Perhaps this book will help initiate change. But, in these days of George Floyd, it is apparent the racial injustice still exists. I can’t imagine the fear a person of color faces when they see policemen.

I Can't Breathe talks about the life and death of Eric Garner. Eric Garner was an unarmed black man who was killed by New York polices officers in 2014. Eric Garner was not a model citizen, but he did not deserve to die. Garner was a hustler, he did what he had to do in order to provide for his family. Mostly, he sold cigarettes on the street corner that he would drive down to other states to get.

He always wore sweatpants that were dirty and everyone knew Eric.

It feels like we as black people are stuck in the system of shoot first ask questions later, or choke first and ask questions later. The title of this book rung true again at the beginning of this summer with the death of George Floyd. He was the straw that broke the camel's back. People have come out in droves from all racial backgrounds to march and protest for black lives. Yes, all lives matter, including the lives of police officers and other ethnic groups, but we as black people are constantly treated as if we are not worth of normal everyday things in this life.

This book really gave me insight to the corruption in the New York police department.

A powerful, thoughtful book. Compelling without feeling overwrought. Not right for my classroom, but I would highly recommend it.

I Can't Breathe
The state of New York, via legislation, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2004 based on the ruling in People v LaValle that it was unconstitutional in jury deadlocked cases. But the hands of justice or injustice as it may seem depending on your lens can throttle the throat of any governmental rule breaker, jury of your peers be damned, injection of lethality unnecessary. The pragmatic role of I Can't Breathe is to encapsulate an iconic moment, the death of Eric Garner, remove it from the context of what most of the public saw (the Ramsey Orta video), and juxtapose it against the backdrop of individual human lives, neighborhoods, cultural progress and regressions and ultimately, accountability. It is the last that bears the brunt of author Matt Taibbi's grievances, partisan only when partisanship elicits its own critique by not being impartial. To be fair and clear, Eric Garner was a petty criminal with a long track record of arrests, well known in the neighborhood by the Staten Island police well before the world knew him upon his death. To the justice system, he was a nuisance; no matter how many fines or short jail stints, the rate of recidivism for Garner was forever elevated. A repeat offender. As for his street cred, he was easy-going but liked to argue. Good natured, but had a great memory. Took a lot of guff from fellow streetwise hoods, but paid his subordinates their fair share. By all accounts, he was well-liked. As a family man, the street supposedly is a tough place to earn your keep for your loved ones. His stretches of time in prison made it difficult to maintain consistent emotional and financial relationships with his loved ones. I imagine it's not uncommon. It certainly doesn't mean he didn't love his children; in fact, the evidence of not necessarily the type of work he did, but how much he worked to put food on the table, showed otherwise. This is an ivory tower paradox. People of privilege tend to assume that those who make poor decisions with their lifestyle must not love their kids if they are putting them in jeopardy. Certainly, they may not be ideal choices, but is it directly attached to the waning of one's love for a child? It's hard to say unless we walk that mile ourselves. Taibbi's research presents the many cooks that spoiled the broth in the Garner case, leaving no stone unturned. Garner is not portrayed as a prince, a sympathetic figure. Taibbi recollects Garner's slovenly appearance, his dalliances with drug dealing, and his penchant for estrangement from his wife. None of which of course begets a death sentence on a sidewalk gasping for air as a peace officer had him in a partial headlock. The facts that it had been an unprovoked and unwarranted arrest were repeatedly overlooked in the case against the arresting officers. Eyewitness accounts revealed Garner had been in the area breaking up a fight. Yet again, it rewinds itself to the idea of accountability. Not just a tragedy occurred, but a death. The District Attorney, a man by the name of Dan Donovan, brought the case to trial and summoned dozens of witnesses. The testimony and evidence presented by those witnesses post-trial, a trial in which the police officers were acquitted of any wrongdoing, were sealed by a court order. Local pols who pledged their support to the Garner family only to realign their allegiance when new officials stepped into higher positions of supervision, only reaffirmed the shallow depth of political soul. It is oft emphasized in this book, that time has a way of burying even the most egregious of human error. Taibbi notes that "the civil rights movement ended...in a negotiated compromise." Legislation promised equal rights. Whites sat back and were allowed to "maintain an illusion of innocence" and we "continued to live in almost complete separation." Unless everyone lives in intentional communities, even the courts can't force integration on the whole. Legislation is a paper time bomb for the society we have now. But we had little choice then either, as it was the right call to end Jim Crow, Black Code, and discrimination. Taibbi continues his direct critique of white America, proudly patting itself on the back of succeeding in a "post-racial stage of an otherwise proud history...that is, until cellphones and the internet came along." Perhaps the denouement to this filibuster is this: we have a style of leadership currently in office that has convinced its voter base that black on black crime is the problem and that excessive police violence towards blacks is a fallacy. It's been propagated to the hilt. What if we, as citizens with the capacity to critically analyze each of these viral cases individually, while we still have breath in our lungs, can say without pre-determined callousness or judgment that an abuse of authority has occurred? Everyone should be held to the same standard of decency and competency. Taibbi does a pointed and well-researched job in pointing this out. Breathe.

I Can't Breathe proved to be a very difficult read, not because of the writing itself, but because of the reason the book had to be written, if you will. There were certain parts of the book where I had to put the book down, and regroup myself, so I could continue reading. Given the current state of affairs in the U.S. regarding police brutality and the race card itself, sadly this won't be the last book of its kind written. The author did a great job with writing it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Like many Tiabbi's books, this seems dense with research that illuminates a very broken system, of which Eric Garner is but one victim of many. However, the heart of this book is Eric Garner and his family and trying to make sense of the tragedy of his death keeping his humanity in the foreground. I'm glad I read this book, even though it was tough read because of the subject matter.

I was a fan of Matt Taibbi's work. I decided not to read or review this book after I requested it because I found out about some disturbing things in Matt's past in regards to his treatment of women. This is a pretty good summary of the issue I'm referring to: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-taibbi/u-s-journalist-faces-sexual-harassment-furor-over-memoir-idUSKBN1CX0QC

Eric Garner was a drug dealer. He had a temper and once beat a man for getting close to his wife. He was in and out of jail, abandoning his wife and kids. Eric Garner wasn’t the best man in the world, but he certainly didn’t deserve to be choked to death.

I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by journalist Matt Taibbi is an in-depth look at Eric Garner the man. A man who had faults, yes, but life isn’t so black and white. Eric Garner had problems with the law, but he was also a whiz with numbers and math. He liked sports and could spew the most obscure statistics. He loved his children, even if he wasn’t always around. Everyone who talked to Taibbi about Garner told stories about the guy next door, a guy who sounded like he would’ve been the life of the party in the local bar. A guy who wanted and tried to do better for his family, but who struggled to find something legal that would support them all. That’s where this book moves beyond Eric Garner.

This book is as much about Eric Garner as it is about the socioeconomic, political, and policing problems in this country. Taibbi does his research and highlights policies and laws that led to Garner’s death, beginning in Minnesota in the 1960s at Lino Lakes. George Kelling was an administrator at Lino Lakes and implemented policies to try to maintain order. These policies, later called “Broken Windows,” worked at Lino Lakes so he developed them further in cities around the country and they heavily influenced policing in Eric Garner’s neighborhood.

But “Broken Windows” alone are not to blame. Taibbi explores politics, laws, class, racism, and the climate in the New York police department to give a broad overview of everything that led to Garner’s death in July 2014. The research is well done, the writing is concise and at times narrative, and he ties it all together well to give a broader perspective on all that shaped Eric Garner’s world. This is a great read to try to understand that, however well-intended politicians claim to be, their policies and laws can have tragic ripple effects, years and even decades later. Eric Garner should not be dead right now. His daughter Erica, who is quoted frequently in this book, shouldn’t be either. We need to do better, and if you don’t think so, then you need to read this book.

Did not enjoy this book. Nothing new in the book that was not already on the news.

This is powerful, well-researched stuff, which could have been more well-rounded, if the life / case histories of the officers were also included / somehow made available. Still, powerful.

“Try to imagine a world where there isn’t a vast unspoken consensus that black men are inherently scary, and most of these police assaults would play in the media like spontaneous attacks of madness. Instead, they’re sold as battle scenes from an occupation story, where a quick trigger finger while patrolling the planet of a violent alien race is easy to understand.”

I received an advance review copy of I Can’t Breathe: A Killing On Bay Street, courtesy of Random House and Net Galley. I had expected this civil rights title to be a good read but also to be anticlimactic, coming out as it did just after publications by literary lions like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Angela Davis. I am surprised and gratified to see that Taibbi, a journalist for Rolling Stone, holds his own quite capably. The title is for sale, and if you care about justice and an end to cop violence in the US, then you should get it and read it.

Many readers will recognize the title, which constitutes Eric Gardner’s last words and became a rallying cry for protests that spanned the globe. Why would any cop, especially one not acting alone, find it necessary to put an elderly man, a large person but not a violent one, in a chokehold over what was, after all, a misdemeanor at most? Taibbi takes us down the terrible urban rabbit hole, deftly segueing from Garner’s story, the events that led up to his death and the legal and political fight that took place afterward, to the cop killings of others, and the bizarre, farcical prosecution that takes place in the unlikely event that a cop is ever charged with having unlawfully killed another person.

Though my own life is free from this type of harassment and though I benefit from White privilege and have done so since birth, I found it hard to breathe myself as I read Garner’s story, and the behind-the-scenes machinations that result in the maintenance of the status quo. And I trembled, and still do, for the Black men in my family.

I think many people over the age of 40 understand that the attacks we see publicized online, one by one, Black boys and men that have done either nothing wrong or committed a minor offense that most Caucasian people would never be stopped for, have been taking place for a very long time. What we didn’t have was proof; what we didn’t have was the long view that allows us to see into cities, rural areas, and small towns in America such as Ferguson, where Michael Brown was killed. And there’s one other thing: we didn’t have to look at it before if it wasn’t happening in our own community, our own neighborhood. Even those of us with racially mixed families didn’t see the scope of it. Some would prefer not to know.

Here’s Taibbi’s take on how it unspooled:

“The civil rights movement ended in a kind of negotiated compromise. Black Americans were granted legal equality, while white America was allowed to nurture and maintain an illusion of innocence, even as it continued to live in almost complete separation. Black America always saw the continuing schism, but white America has traditionally been free to ignore and be untroubled by it and to believe it had reached the “postracial” stage of its otherwise proud history. That was until cell phones and the internet came along. When the murder of Eric Garner hit the headlines, it at first seemed to lift the veil.”

Taibbi’s smooth narrative and expert pacing doesn’t make this any easy book to read; nothing can. If it’s easy, you’re not paying attention. But if we ignore Eric Gardner, Michael and Trayvon and Freddie and Sandra and all the rest, we are complicit in their deaths. Highly recommended, even at full jacket price.

Matt Taibbi's I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street was one of the most powerful non-fiction books I have read in some time.

In 2014, on Bay Street in Staten Island, Eric Garner was put in a chokehold by police and died at their hands. This, you are familiar with. But the journey to get to Bay Street on that hot summer day is one you aren't familiar with unless you spend you life steeped in research on the history of social (in)justice. Eric was a man on the streets selling cigarettes to support his family, and decades of history within the policing tactics of New York City came to a head to ultimately take the life of a father, a husband, a friend, a son, a human. The events before and after are ones you may not know about, but they are presented here in Taibbi's treatise on not just what happened to one person, but the injustice of the system as a whole that led to this death, and so many others.

"Broken windows" is a policy many of us are familiar with, but are we, really? It wasn't until I was a couple of chapters into Taibbi's book that I actually took the time to find the 1982 article in The Atlantic by the men who came up with the theory. You may find it more informative than you think. Taibbi goes into detail about George L. Kelling's work that led up to this and his thoughts about it even as cities started to adapt his work. He figured out very quickly that this policy, in the wrong hands, would lead to grave consequences for the citizens of the city living under its thumb. Boy, was he right. Three decades after the theory was put forth, it's a fair assessment that "broken windows" hs certainly achieved lower rates of crime but at a huge cost to the humans who make up the heart of the city. So many names mentioned in this book we know without needing much explanation -- Amadou Diallo. Sean Bell. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Philando Castile. Sandra Bland. These men and women are only a fraction of those who have lost their lives over the long game of social policies meant to "protect" the public. We know that's not how it goes.

"Stop and frisk" runs along those same lines, and it's something that has been on my mind for many years. This policy is not recent, but I watched it in action in my neighborhood in Queens. I saw many men stopped and frisked, and it was a difficult thing to watch helplessly. What could I do? It made me angry to watch this practice first hand among my neighbors and not be able to do anything about it other than to complain on social media. I knew it was absurd then, and I stand by that assertion four years later. The evidence for it is available for you to look up yourself, but you can start here with this article. The contributions of these programs and policies that criminalize a walk to the subway only seek to separate citizens.

Tiabbi has written a clear, concise, and haunting account of not just Garner's death, but of the systemic issues surrounding it that lead up to it -- such as stronger policing of little crimes in an area newly built up by wealthy white residents in Staten Island -- all the way through to the court cases that would not allow the records of what happened, other than the video released by an onlooker, to the public. There was no justice in this case, and Taibbi makes that clear for his reader with such pathos and honesty. I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I was reading in this book, and I ultimately came to the decision that I do not care what anyone is doing -- I don't care about someone selling illegal cigarettes, giving a cop attitude, or demanding that they be respected as a person -- the loss of human life is shameful and should be mourned regardless of circumstances.

This book is worth buying, reading, and keeping if you are at all interested in race, crime, policing, an the intersection of these issues with social policy.

I would also like to note the heartbreak that came with the passing of Erica, Eric's daughter and mother of two children who became an activist after her father's death and the subsequent lack of justice. The loss of life should always be mourned, whether you agree or disagree with actions and politics.

The first time I'd ever heard the name Eric Garner was this past winter while I was listening to the podcast "Fresh Air". I think I only got past the introduction of Mr. Taibbi and how his story regarding a brutal killing of the man in Statin Island evolved into his book. I was instantly hooked, I quickly hit the stop button and saved the podcast, so I could listen to it after I had read this book. At the time that this crime had taken place, I had already shut down the media because there was so much unrest in our country that I couldn't take anymore.
I'm a fan of non-fiction that deals with social issues and this was one of the best books in the genre that I've read in a long time. Mr. Taibbi brought Eric Garner back to life for me, I wasn't already saturated with the media regarding this case. I had no preconceived idea about the man or crime itself. I was transformed back a few years in time to this little small area where Mr. Garner was out on the street trying to scratch out a living for his family.
Mr. Taibbi did an awesome job in describing the climate in New York City during the past several years as well as the entire country. It was appalling to read about the super aggressive Stop and Frisk policies to singling out certain individuals who are just trying to make a living, a hard one at that. In many agencies, if an officer uses the chokehold its grounds for immediate dismissal. It was introduced back before officers had other means to subdue a combative subject. Mr. Garner was not by any means combative, this officer was wrong on so many counts.
I wish that I could see reform in the future, we need it regarding our criminal justice system, from mass incarceration to low-level victimless crimes. I’m afraid it doesn’t look like it’s moving in that direction, at least not anytime soon.
Mr. Taibbi nailed it when he brought up the new condos that were being built where Mr. Garner was killed. It's so sad to see these poor people get displaced either by harassment by city officials or their homes literally get torn down around them. When a city decides to rejuvenate an area that has fallen into a state of disrepair there is no stopping them, the people who lived in the rat-infested slums beforehand be damned. They want to wipe the slate clean, put on a pretty face so they can raise the tax brackets.
This book lived up to everything I thought it would and more. The humanistic approach to the life of Eric Garner and his family was extremely powerful.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Eric Garner video is powerful and viewers can't helped feeling outraged at how that arrest, ultimately a murder, went down. In this book Taibbi touches upon Garner's life, death, the lack of indictment after his death, and the settlement the NYPD had to pay. While showing us that Garner was a leader in his community, the author weaves other stories and cases that highlight the injustices that have been committed by policemen for the past decades.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/legacy-eric-garner-policing-still-going-wrong/

I initially thought this would be an almost true crime investigation of Eric Garner's death at the hands of the police force. Instead, I opened a book that took Mr. Garner's life and death as the starting point to discuss the ways in which American society is stacked against groups including the poor and African Americans most particularly. This is a moving account featuring an honest telling of Eric Garner's character, working just as hard to make his life and death matter to the reader as to explain the context of his death in a wider picture. "I Can't Breathe" is a cry for help, a warning, a statement of fear, and a reality. Brilliant work.

“Never be content to sit back and watch as others rights are trampled upon. Your rights could be next.” -DaShanne Stokes

Matt Taibbi, a notable journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine and NYT bestselling author, specializes in reportage of economic, political and social injustice. “ I Can’t Breathe: A Killing On Bay Street” recounts the life and death of Eric Garner (1970-2014) who died on Staten Island, NYC after he was placed in a police choke-hold, and left unconscious on the public sidewalk without aid (CPR) until the arrival of emergency services. This event was captured on video; fueling public outrage, protests and demonstrations by thousands of people and demands for justice.

Eric Garner was a devoted family man-- husband, father and grandfather. Garner was proud of his oldest son, Eric Jr. who had been chosen to receive a college athletic scholarship. He provided for his family’s support selling packs and single “loosie” cigarettes, the high rates of NYC taxation made business sustainable. However, the risk had increased significantly: under constant police surveillance, Garner had been harassed and arrested endlessly, illegally violated and stripped searched on the street by police officers, he had also been robbed several times. The options for legitimate job placement for an ex-con were strictly limited, and his despair was understandable. Still, he did what he could to maintain respectability and social order, and made the ultimate sacrifice after breaking-up a fight in a public park.
The vast government bureaucracy of the 120th Precinct Staten Island Tomkinsville Park Anti-Crime Unit would prove nearly impossible to hold accountable for the murder of Eric Garner: “The city of New York went to extraordinary lengths to disappear (or flush) Eric Garners death down the institutional memory manhole, into the vast sewer of blood and unpunished murder that raged under its sidewalks.”
A half of century has passed since The Civil Rights Act (1964). Sociologist George Kelling PhD supported idealistic anti-crime measures as ““Broken Windows” and “Stop and Frisk” associated with racial profiling-- particularly in selected neighborhoods with increased elements of (perceived) criminal activity. “Zero Tolerance” policies also gave the police more authority and control to be tough on crime based on their own observations: The “willful disruption of government process” is the “wild card” that allows police to detain and question anyone whether or not they have done anything suspicious or wrong.

Though 72% of NYC illicit drug users were white, 80%-90% of all inmates incarcerated for drug offences were black or Hispanic. Garner, was a very large man, with a prison record related to prior drug convictions, may have been too visible in a (white) area of high-end condominium complexes. Taibbi did not want to define Eric Garner as a political figure, his humanity and family life were portrayed exceptionally well. The trial involving Garner's death launched the career of the prosecuting attorney that failed to win justice or a conviction of the policeman that killed him. The election of Donald J. Trump and his appointment of Jeff Sessions as attorney general—Sessions promptly proposed restrictions and limitations of investigations by federal government authorities of corrupt police departments-- dismantling decades of hard work previously accomplished for civil rights.
**With thanks and appreciation to Random House Books via NetGalley for the DDC for the purpose of review.