--- title: Michael Brown and Ferguson Were the Spark—Eric Garner Is the Fire description: Are we trying to create a world devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men? canonical: https://time.com/3617369/eric-garner-grand-jury-protests/ author: John McWhorter article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-04T03:03:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:17.129Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ferguson Was the Spark—Eric Garner Is the Fire og:description: Are we trying to create a world devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men? og:url: https://time.com/3617369/eric-garner-grand-jury-protests/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 640 og:image:height: 360 og:image:alt: Eric Garner Police Brutality Death og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ferguson Was the Spark—Eric Garner Is the Fire twitter:description: Are we trying to create a world devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ferguson Was the Spark — Eric Garner Is the Fire > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=67bc1057-c0ff-42e9-88b4-e56405ba202b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch: Protests Erupt Across New York City [Watch (HLS stream): Watch: Protests Erupt Across New York City](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wGYjBNhw.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-12-04. Protesters took over highways, squares and streets in waves of outrage_ by [John McWhorter](https://time.com/author/john/) ## John McWhorter Dec 4, 2014 3:03 AM UTC  Ramsey Orta by [John McWhorter](https://time.com/author/john/) ## John McWhorter Dec 4, 2014 3:03 AM UTC Here’s a look at the future, and probably not that far into it. People will learn two things: 1) That an officer was not indicted for murdering Eric Garner—black, 43, and detained simply for selling single cigarettes—despite the fact that the killing was recorded from start to finish for all of America to see. 2) That an officer was not indicted for killing Michael Brown after Brown had stolen from a store, refused the officer’s request to step aside and perhaps tried to grab his gun, with the officer shooting when Brown repeatedly lunged toward him for some reason, with none of this recorded and the details murkily varying from one witness to the next. Perfectly sensible people will be wondering why so many people in late 2014 thought of the Ferguson case, in particular, as the civil rights case of the 21st century. Yes, Brown should not have died—I have heartily agreed, repeatedly. But people in the future will see the current focus on Ferguson as evidence of people losing sight of the fact that activism is supposed to be about results. Are we trying to create a humanity devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men? The two aren’t the same. A world without racism would be a world without dirt. A world where episodes like what has happened just this year to Garner, Brown, John Crawford, Akai Gurley, and Tamir Rice is much more plausible. We need special prosecutors, body cameras, and, if you ask me, an end to the war on drugs. As such, we must be pragmatic. I know the people protesting Michael Brown’s death nationwide are sincere. But it’s easy to forget that in cases like this, sincerity is supposed to be forward-focused. It’s all too human for people to end up mistaking the heightened emotions, the threats, the media attention, the catharsis, as progress itself. But drama alone burns fast and bright. Think about how Trayvon is already—admit it—seeming more like history than the present. Are we really committed to this thing lasting past the winter? If so, then we have to ask ourselves—is Michael Brown more important somehow because he was killed with a gun? Is Garner somehow less worthy of iconic, implacable protest because he was older than Brown, less “glamorous” than a teenager? Is it, in other words, that Brown is more dramatic? Because there are other kinds of drama, if we must. For example, Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s statement about Garner is outright tragedy—so disgustingly detached coming from someone’s murderer that it constitutes drama in itself. “It is never my intention to harm anyone,” Pantaleo says—as if we were thinking now of “harm,” a formal term you can use to refer to a dent in your car. “I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner”—my God, “very bad” sounds like he broke someone’s window with a baseball, and “the death of Mr. Garner” sounds like something he watched on TV rather than did with his bare hands. “Accept my personal condolences” says this man twice brought up on misconduct charges before, as if it were his aunt by marriage who passed away after a brief illness. This, to me, is an articulate testament to how some whites can be unable to see black people as human—and, especially if cops, be more likely to kill them. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a precious teaching moment. Pantaleo’s statement is, in its way, as useful as Reverend King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail as a look into a human mind. Yet one hears that however iffy the Ferguson details are, we should just go with it because it has struck a chord. That our message to America is to be “Even when my son steals from a store, refuses a cop’s order and tries to take his gun, he shouldn’t get shot.” And he shouldn’t, but wow, what a delicate and hopelessly controversial point that is in such a key moment as this. It’s a tricky, subtle assertion, which has not struck a chord with the disinterested middle because the facts are too murky. We want to make history, not just headlines. How about this, as a story we can tell the next generation without taking a deep breath and thinking about how to paper over the holes? Ferguson was the spark, but Garner was “it.” Here is where I am quite sure Reverend King and Bayard Rustin would be planning not just statements and gestures, but boycotts. The recording of Garner’s death has the clear, potent and inarguable authority of the Birmingham newsreels. We must use that. Yes, _u_ _se_—we are trying to create change, not just perform. Onward. ## Transcript Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I am. Eric Gardner. I. Black lives matter, black lives matter. Hands up, don't shoot. Hands up, don't shoot. Indict. Convict. Send those killer cops to jail. The whole dam system is guilty as hell. [ CROSSTALK ] Justice for Eric I'm here for Eric Gardner. I'm here for Michael Brown. I'm here for I [ UNKNOWN ] here for so many black women, so many black men, so many latino women, latino men who just been neglected. I feel like when there is nothing else you can do, you have to get out. And you have to voice your opinion. It's really, I mean this is democracy at work. [ NOISE ]. I have a child that's growing up in America. And it's sad to know that my daughter, my nephew, this is, this is life for them. No peace! No Peace! No Peace! I can't breathe, I can't breathe. No Justice. No Peace. No racist police. I, I just couldn't sit still at home and just be like, you know, all of this happening. I had to be a part of it because you know, Michael, Erick Garner could of been me. Hands up, don't shoot! Hands up, don't shoot !, Hands up, don't shoot! Hands up, don't shoot! My daughter asked me why everyone is holding up the sign, what does it mean? And so I told her, you know, that means that the same thing that I want for you. It's the same thing that I want for everyone's kids and that's what everyone is saying with these signs, that they want the same thing for everyone's kids. It's also that it means that we're all like a family, all together. That's exactly what it means. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. 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