Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight, ladies and gentlemen, with a heavy heart because today we had a secret grand jury finding in New York that resulted in no charges against the police officer who killed an unarmed man named Eric Garner, a man whom they accused of trying to sell some cigarettes. That man was approached by law enforcement on the streets of New York, and when approached, he said that he had not done anything wrong. He held his hands up in the hands up, don't shoot position, and they took him down while his hands were up and applied a choke hold, an illegal choke hold, and applied it until the man took his last breath. What did Eric Garner say 13 times before he died? What did he say 13 times before he died? He said, ``I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe.'' And he said that over and over again until he could not breathe. He took his last breath just like Michael Brown, accused of stealing some cigarettes--or cigars, excuse me--Michael Brown, accused of stealing some cigars, Eric Garner, accused of selling some cigarettes. I don't know when possession and/or sale of tobacco merited a death penalty in this country, but both of them, both of those cases involved tobacco products. Both of them involved men--Black men--with their hands up in the ``don't shoot'' position. Both of them were killed. Both cases were handled in a secret grand jury process.…”