“I can’t breathe” — the dying words of Eric Garner, who was killed in a police chokehold in July — has become a national rallying cry.
Across the US, those words appear on protesters’ banners. They also serve as a metaphor for a justice system that is on the cusp of forfeiting its legitimacy. The decay extends far wider than the “justifiable homicide” that describes the 400 or more deaths every year at the hands of US law enforcement officers.
Antiquated grand jury hearings, grossly overcrowded prisons, the militarisation of police equipment, overambitious US attorneys — all feed into a larger crisis of US justice. In the wake of the decisions not to prosecute officers in the Ferguson and Staten Island killings, President Barack Obama has called for a “national conversation” to rebuild trust in local police forces. That is a bare minimum. Mr Obama should launch a root-and-branch review of a system that needs saving from itself.