A local police officer has inserted himself into the national debate over police brutality with a t-shirt that mocks the brutal death of an unarmed man in the streets of New York City.
Mishawaka police officer Jason Barthel designed the “Breathe Easy — Don’t Break the Law” shirt for his South Bend-based business.
The message that his shirt sends can be summed up in the inverse and it is quite ugly: break the law, and you won’t be breathing easy.
He says so much in his own words.
“When you break the law, unfortunately there’s going to be consequences, and some of them aren’t going to be pretty,” Barthel bluntly told the South Bend Tribune.
The problem, of course, is that Eric Garner and others who have died at the hands of law enforcement were only alleged to have broken the law.
In the United States, we have a court system that determines guilt. Police officers are not executioners. They are not Judge Dredd.
The shirt dismisses the very core of American justice with its careless words.
Even worse, Barthel is profiting and self-promoting his business on the last words of a dying man. Garner’s death sparked nationwide protests against a trend that is alarmingly clear with at least 461 Americans killed by law enforcement last year alone, the highest in two decades.
Notice the words “at least” — the FBI statistics are incomplete, based on self-reported information from police departments across the country. Not every department reports this information, making the data set incomplete. In other words, the number could be much higher.
Eric Garner, who was killed on July 17 on a New York City sidewalk, just happened to have his police encounter recorded on video, which gave his case notoriety. Without the video, Garner sadly would have been just another statistic.
The Staten Island father was allegedly selling cigarettes — a misdemeanor that would not even land him in jail — before he was choked to death by police officers.
The video shows Garner pleading with police to leave him alone and raising his hands in the air before being thrown to the cold, hard cement sidewalk where he would never get back up.
Police did not even attempt to talk Garner down — who was visibly upset over what he said was frequent police harassment — and did not give him the chance to voluntarily accept arrest.
Instead, the officers escalated the situation, charged him without provocation, slammed him to the ground in a few seconds, and put him in a chokehold against police procedures.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Garner cried multiple times before being killed on the scene.
These words carry powerful weight for those who wear shirts honoring Garner. The “I can’t breathe” shirts have been worn by both activists and athletes alike in peaceful protest.
But such sentiment must not hold sway for Barthel, who twisted Garner’s words into a shirt that the Mishawaka police officer (comically) says is meant to improve race relations and show support for law enforcement.
One would hope that a police officer would have the sense to not fan the flames of distrust in our community between law enforcement and citizens — but that is exactly what happened here.
Public officials are held to a higher standard than the one that Barthel set.
Police are no exception, which makes this case all the more disturbing. This was not an “average Joe” acting irresponsibly. It was a man who day in and day out wears a uniform, holds the legal authority to end someone’s life, and is expected to carry out his duties impartially without prejudice. It’s difficult to imagine how he is capable of doing that given his off-duty antics.
This shirt represents profiting off of someone’s death. It sends the message that it is perfectly defensible to kill people for allegedly breaking the law even when they commit minor offenses.
Messages like this only make our hardworking police officers’ jobs that much more difficult to rebuild trust in communities where there is none.
We need leaders who can recognize the systemic problems plaguing law enforcement agencies across our nation — and working to correct those problems — while at the same time recognizing that the majority of cops are committed to their communities and doing good work that often goes unrecognized.
No one in this debate derides the invaluable work of law enforcement. Police protect our homes, our businesses, our schools, and our government.
But some people seem content to defend bad cops, poor behavior, and a lack of discipline.
This offensive shirt fails to acknowledge these distinctions because the business owner printing them is pandering to a customer that sees the world in black and white. A customer whose authority worship is the antithesis to American ideals of justice and a long-standing tradition of holding those who hold power to account for their actions.
This shirt is not what our city or our country represents.
We can both support the efforts of law enforcement while demanding justice for those who our system has wronged. These concepts are not mutually exclusive.
Further, supporting Barthel’s shirt and the message that it represents does not support law enforcement.
Quite the contrary.
It undermines law enforcement. It makes their job more difficult. It breeds further distrust.
Going forward, we should look to do the hard work of actually improving — rather than senselessly dividing — our community.
This means building bridges between law enforcement and the citizens that they serve through meaningful dialogue. This means making law enforcement more reflective of our city. This means that we will not hide behind empty rhetoric and authority worship but rather look for sensible solutions to complex problems. This means better police training and employing common sense to avoid conflict. And yes, this means holding law enforcement to account for their actions.
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10 Comments
There was an 80 year old man who was beaten nearly to death by police. The police said he did not follow police orders and thus resisted. When the old man was recovering in the hospital they found out he was deaf.
Perhaps it is wiser to look for a reason to de-escalate a situation instead of acting on an excuse to escalate it.
I wrote a paper on Sam Adams once, so I asked myself, what would Sam Adams have to say about this.
Well this is such a welcome read. Good on you for speaking truth to power. This is what journalism is meant to do.
If you watch the video Garner was resisting arrest. Put your hands down and behind your back. Should only be told ONCE. Respect the badge and the badge will respect you. And how can he profit when the shirt sells for 7.95? “I cant breathe” sells for 3 times that amount.
There is a comic book in which anyone who “resists” in the slightest is killed. It is called Judge Dredd.
Divide our community? Do the numbers! The vast majority of us do NOT have run-ins with the law. When we are approched by law enforcement we submit, that is what a proper citizen does. When your house is broken into, who are you going to call? Here’s an idea get the number of the “comunity leaders” who are organizing the protests chanting ” What do we want? Dead Cops!” and see if they will come protect you!
You really do benefit from White Privilege, from the way you phrased your comment, whether you know it or not.
You say we are to submit, as if we must act like slaves submitting and capitulating to our slave masters – which really is the same power you are assigning to cops – slave masters.
They are not our judge and jury, they do not have the right to take a human life, and they need to be held accountable when they do take another human’s life. The cops need to be trained on de-escalating confrontations.
The cop that came to our house yesterday could have just walked into our yard had he wanted, he had official police business to be there, but instead, he knocked on our door, asked nicely if he could go in our yard, and we granted permission. That is the way all situations could and should be handled. Be an ambassador for the community, and only escalate in response to escalation that cannot be de-escalated with reason and communication.
Hilarious! When you are in the wrong point a finger and tell someone they are a racist or suffer from white privilege. Here is an idea when someone is breaking into your house, or stealing your belongings ask the police officer to be polite and ask nicely. If the perpetrator resists or says it was their stuff, ask him to just walk away, least he exercise a “judgment”.
Dan, aside from the fact that the courts have ruled that the police are under no obligation to protect anyone, I believe the police had a duty to protect Eric garner. After all, he is innocent until proven guilty.
With that said, just because there are good police who do a good job trying to help and protect people, does not mean that the police who behaved as they did in the Eric Garner case conducted themselves in a way the public will accept.
To spell it out, just because there are good police does not absolve these police from their actions and the consequences of their actions.
The way that too many people behave is as if they are either on “Team Cops” or “Team Suspects” or “Team Black Guy”…and that their team can seem to do no wrong. Said thinking is beyond foolish.
And I see he added a “United States Police Officer” badge to the shirt as if he took it upon himself speaking to speak on behalf of every officer in America. No one should go on record with such a bold personal opinion and then affiliate it to thousands of hard working men/women who may or may not share those same beliefs.
When wi9ll the shirts be available?