Call it a battle of the t-shirts. If you pop ‘I Can’t Breathe’ t-shirt into Google Images, you’ll see a plethora of athletes — like LeBron James, Derrick Rose, and others — sporting black t-shirts with ‘I Can’t Breathe’ emblazoned across the front in white lettering.
As reported by the Guardian , Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father, can be seen in a graphic video gasping and saying, “I can’t breathe ” before being placed in a chokehold by a New York Police Department officer prior to going unconscious. After Garner’s death, the ‘I can’t breathe’ phrasing became a rallying cry, especially among those protesting the fact that a grand jury did not indict the officer responsible for the incident.
A new shirt, however, is being pitted against the ‘I Can’t Breathe’ t-shirts and is causing controversy, reports CNN. “ Breathe Easy, Don’t Break the Law ,” reads the shirt being sold by Jason Barthel, both a police officer in Indiana with the Mishawaka Police Department and an entrepreneur in his own right, as the owner of the South Bend Uniform Company.
The “Breathe Easy, Don’t Break the Law” shirt has a police officer’s badge on the front, and Barthel told WSBT that he’s not trying to do anything negative to the public, but that he’s trying to protect the public. The company’s Facebook page , however, is receiving comments both supporting and criticizing the t-shirt’s assumption that laws were being broken in recent controversial cases involving deaths at the hands of police.
The ‘I Can’t Breathe’ versus ‘Breathe Easy, Don’t Break The Law’ t-shirt battle isn’t the only one going on when it comes to controversial police actions. As reported by the Inquisitr , Andrew Hawkins recently cried explaining why he wore a ‘Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford’ t-shirt as Hawkins’ eloquently described never wanting his young son to experience the horror of police brutality, racial profiling, or trigger-happy actions.
Meanwhile, in the midst of all the ‘I Can’t Breathe’ versus ‘Breathe Easy, Don’t Break The Law’ t-shirt controversy, which represents the polarizing effect some racial discussions can have based upon varying points of view, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have added their experiences to the talk of race.
“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys.”
According to People , the Obamas shared the times the president was mistaken for a waiter or a valet. [Image credit of LeBron James wearing ‘I Can’t Breathe’ t-shirt: AP]