On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. (Wikipedia). According to video and people who were there at the time With multiple officers pinning him down, Garner repeated the words “I can’t breathe” 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk.

This May a white police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck in Minneapolis for a period reported to be 8 minutes and 46 seconds and many watched around the world the events on video.

Breathing is fundamental to life, yet many black and brown people and their allies fought this year for the actual and metaphorical right in the streets, media, public square, classroom, and boardroom. This hand-sprayed phrase on an empty billboard space was as impactful as any laboriously created mural we saw this year.

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