"I can't breathe" is what millions of black suspects say, right up there with "the handcuffs are too tight" and "I only had two beers."
How do you know this? "I can't breathe" is not something I've heard that people stereotypically say to cops. Under what circumstances is this normally falsely said by black people to cops? Is this often uttered by suspects when they don't have anything pressing on their throat?
For some reason "I can't breathe" doesn't feel like it fits with the run of the mill things people say to cops.
"I can't breathe" was something Eric Garner repeated over and over until he passed out and died, in 2014. "I Can't Breathe - A Killing on Bay Street" was the title of a book about Eric Garner's death written by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibi. I saw a meme yesterday that listed "I can't breathe" as the last words of three African-American men who BLM claims were victims of police brutality, Garner, Floyd, and another whose name I can't remember. It's been a BLM sign-slogan for years. It's the chief complaint of just about anyone who has the majority of another human's mass pressing down on their torso or neck - if they can speak, they're probably going to say that, or something like it. I've had it said to me in my middle school's gym class wrestling unit back in 1989 or whatever.