‘We Cant Breathe protest staged at civil rights museum Commercial Appeal//Thomas Bailey Jr.//Dec. 5, 2014 The shock waves from a New York chokehold traveled Thursday to Memphis where about 60 protesters staged a “die-in’’ at the foot of the balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. For more than 10 minutes the group lay supine on front plaza of the National Civil Rights Museum, signifying the death of Eric Garner. He’s the black cigarette seller who died in July after being placed in a chokehold by a white New York City police officer. A witness’s widespread video shows him calling out to officers, “I can’t breathe.” Protests erupted in New York and spread elsewhere Wednesday after a grand jury declined to bring charges against officers. In Memphis, protesters repeated an underlying chorus of “black lives matter’’ as individual participants took turns calling out “We can’t breathe” or “Memphis can’t breathe” or “I can’t breathe” or “This country can’t breathe” or “I’m angry” or “Don’t shoot” or “My hands are up.” As protests go, this peaceful demonstration was downright polite. A die-in can sometimes be used to block a street, sidewalk or a building to force the public to pay attention to a cause. The Memphis WeCan’tBreathe protest seemed not to inconvenience or disrupt anyone. Beforehand, organizers had notified police, who put a couple of squad cars nearby but out of the way and posted no uniformed officers at the demonstration. Organizers also got permission from the civil rights museum. Some of its employees watched and took photos from inside the former Lorraine Hotel. About 40 of the participants were white and about 20 were black. Tami Sawyer and Naomi Van Tol had never met in person, but via Twitter they teamed up to organize the die-in. “Like anyone, I spent most of (Wednesday) angry,” Sawyer said. “As I was home last night I was like, God, we’re in Memphis; we’ve got to make something happen. The city cannot afford to be silent.” The graduate of St. Mary’s Episcopal School and University of Memphis sent out a tweet that a protest should be staged. The tweet caught Van Tol’s eye. “I happened to see that Tami had posted ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a die-in at the civil rights museum tomorrow,” Van Tol said. “And I thought, I want to do that. So I said let’s organize it and she and I each kind of did part of it.” Van Tol created a Facebook page devoted to the event. Pat Primrose of Midtown was among the first to show up for the late-afternoon protest. She came with a homemade sign stating “We Can’t Breathe!” “I was really angry (Wednesday) night,” Primrose said. “ ... If he’s lying down and he’s saying he can’t breathe then help him. Why would you choke him. I’m struggling with that. It’s unbelievable.”
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 14:18:35 +0000
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