This time, as Taibbi wrote in one of his Facebook posts, he found a story that “had to be told without my voice, without linguistic cartwheels or jokes or any of the other circus tricks I learned to use.” Indeed, “I Can’t Breathe” is a work of deep reporting, as chapter by chapter, Taibbi introduces us to individual players - from Garner’s fellow street hustlers in the beleaguered Tompkinsville section of Staten Island to activists who protested the grand jury’s refusal to indict Pantaleo (a man whom we also get to know much better, as Taibbi unearths what he can of his past). But one should not mistake a review of this book on Garner with an endorsement of the author or his previous work.

Satire or not, the criticisms will no doubt be disqualifying to some readers. Taibbi has since posted two apologies on Facebook, saying that such passages in the book were intended as satire. Taibbi has recently come under renewed scrutiny for a 2000 book he co-wrote with Mark Ames, with whom he edited an English-language newspaper in 1990s Russia, in which they describe sexually harassing and assaulting their female employees. Its title, “I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street,” seems to imply a narrow focus on the Garner killing, belying the book’s prismatic approach to both the people and policies involved in Garner’s life and death. Matt Taibbi, the author and Rolling Stone contributing editor, has published a new book that properly depicts the Garner killing as a consequence of our society’s ills. However, a more thorough understanding is required. Assessing his end solely based on what happened that day is tempting, given the video evidence. Politics, race and money play roles in nudging us all to our fates, and Garner’s demise on July 17, 2014, involved all three.

Saying that the chokehold killed Garner feels incomplete. Many of us would personally testify to the term’s technical accuracy, having watched, ad infinitum, the horrifying video of the 43-year-old grandfather and loose-cigarette dealer gasping for air as a New York City police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, uses a chokehold and wrestles Garner down to the pavement. “Homicide” is too simple a word for what happened to Eric Garner on that Staten Island sidewalk three years ago. I CAN’T BREATHE A Killing on Bay Street By Matt Taibbi 322 pp.

The divide matt taibbi sparknotes