What to Know
- Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, was arrested at a protest outside Trump Tower
- Carr and 10 other people were arrested for blocking traffic on Fifth Avenue, police said
- Eric Garner died after being put in a police chokehold back in 2014; his dying words "I can't breathe" became a rallying cry
The mother of Eric Garner was among nearly a dozen people arrested outside Trump Tower on Tuesday night.
Gwen Carr and a group of about 30 people organized by the National Action Network, a civil rights organization, came out to protest President Donald Trump’s executive orders, cabinet picks and pick for Supreme Court justice.
The protest lasted about an hour outside Trump Tower, where the president has a penthouse and office. Protesters marched along the sidewalk and in the street, holding signs like “Indivisible” and “A man of quality will never fear equality.”
“He's not representing all of the people and it's a public office, and you can't really have a public office and run it for your own self-profit. It's a public office for all of the people and he needs to represent all of the people,” said Kim Kahn of Greenwich Village.
Police arrested 11 protesters for allegedly blocking traffic along busy Fifth Avenue. Some of them were seen handcuffed as they were led into a police bus.
The youngest daughter of Rev. Al Sharpton, Ashley Sharpton, was another of the people arrested with Carr, a subway operator before the death of her son. Carr has since devoted her time to civil rights activism.
Local
Garner, 43, died on July 17, 2014, after being put in a chokehold on a Staten Island street corner by an NYPD officer after he was stopped for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The chokehold was captured on video, which showed him calling out "I can't breathe" as he was held down.
Garner's dying words became a rallying cry at protests nationwide over police killings of black men amid a nationwide debate over police use of force.
Sharpton runs the National Action Network and is a talk-show host on MSNBC, which is owned by NBC Universal, the parent company of this site.
