#Ican'tbreathe
“I can’t breathe,” George Floyd gasped moments before his death. The police ignored his plea and the result created a tragic and all too familiar portrait of black American life. We have heard these exact words before. When arrested in 2014, Eric Gardner desperately pleaded, “I can’t breathe” shortly before his death. Little has changed for minorities since. In past few months alone, Ahmaud Arbery was shot while jogging, and Breonna Taylor, an EMT worker, was shot while sleeping in her bed when police raided the wrong house. Though most police officers serve honorably, the bad behavior of a few destroys public trust. Each one of the policemen involved in Floyd’s death took this oath: “As a Minnesota Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all