Photo Source Paul Silva | CC BY 2.0
I had no idea how difficult it would be to write my book, This Stops Today: Eric Garner’s Mother Seeks Justice After Losing Her Son (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), I had hoped the process would be cathartic, a way to deal with the pain once and for all, but I discovered that grief doesn’t work that way. At least not for me. Forcing myself to re-live the events of July 17, 2014 was just as painful because I had to dig deep and analyze everything that happened.
One of God’s most gracious gifts to us is the ability to allow horrific memories to gradually evolve so that we can go on living. It’s no less horrible or devastating, but with God’s help I have been able to move on with my life. Now my goal is to help prevent others from experiencing the brutality that my son faced his last day on this earth.
As people viewed and shared the viral video many times over, everyone watched as they trapped my son like a caged animal. I have seen parts of it and heard what happened in the remaining portions. My son was so frustrated with the ongoing harassment, especially because he had done nothing wrong that day. Others even backed him up, trying to reason with the NYPD and help de-escalate the situation. It’s true that he tried to avoid being handcuffed because he knew that once that happened, he would be totally helpless, once again at their authoritarian mercy.
He wasn’t aggressive or assertive with those officers. He did what he had…