The Eric Garner Act HR 4408 was introduced in Congress to make chokeholds or other oxygen-hindering maneuvers illegal under federal civil rights law.
Hakeem Jeffries (D–NY) sponsored this bill. So far only Democrats have cosponsored the Act which tells you something.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D–NY) sponsored the Senate version numbered S.3895.
It’s also telling that the sponsors of these two bills are from my home state of New York.
In 1999 I moved to Brooklyn when it wasn’t popular to do so.
I drove across the Verrazano Bridge–the Guinea Gangplank–in the opposite direction.
Fleeing Staten Island I started life over in a new home.
Eric Garner was killed on Bay Street on Staten Island for selling loose cigarettes.
I used to walk down Bay Street all the time when I lived on Staten Island.
No–I couldn’t tolerate the politics in that borough.
Nor could I thrive in that claustrophobic Caucasia.
You can contact your Congressperson and your Senator to lobby them to vote Yes on signing these bills into law.
The time has come.
Left of the Dial 