Los Angeles, CA — The words “I can’t breathe” have become a rallying cry for those who advocate for an end to police brutality. In case after gruesome case, these words are captured on video as cops squeeze the life from American citizens. Though police apologists will claim that saying “I can’t breathe” means you can breathe because you can talk — time after time, they are proven wrong.
Although they were likely uttered countless times before, as cops squeezed the breath from their victims, the words “I can’t breathe” were burned into history when officer Daniel Pantaleo choked the last breath from Eric Garner.
Showing their utter disregard for human life and the disturbing nature of the thin-blue-line culture, NYPD officers had shirts made that said, “I can breathe,” to mock the last words of a father of six, who they killed.
Those words have been caught on film countless more times since that fateful day, yet they didn’t spark a major outcry until George Floyd uttered them on Memorial Day in 2020 as cops squeezed the life from his body.
Instances like Floyd’s happen so frequently that since that day, multiple body camera videos have been released showing cops doing the same thing to other folks, who died shortly after saying, “I can’t breathe.”
Edward Bronstein was one of these men. Though he died two months before Floyd, video was not released until last year as part of a lawsuit. After watching the video, we now know why the California Highway Patrol fought for two years to keep you from seeing it.
In a recent development, seven officers and a registered nurse have been charged in connection with Bronstein’s death, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The officers face charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault by an officer, while the nurse is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
For a misdemeanor, Bronstein was handcuffed, thrown to the ground and suffocated to death by a half dozen cops — none of whom have been held to account for his death — until now.
The nightmare for Bronstein’s family began when this father of five was pulled over for alleged DUI. When Bronstein refused to have his blood drawn, which is his right, he was subsequently attacked and killed.
