I Can't Breathe
A Killing on Bay Street
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
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By:
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Matt Taibbi
About this listen
A work of riveting literary journalism that explores the roots and repercussions of the infamous killing of Eric Garner by the New York City police—from the bestselling author of The Divide
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
On July 17, 2014, a forty-three-year-old black man named Eric Garner died on a Staten Island sidewalk after a police officer put him in what has been described as an illegal chokehold during an arrest for selling bootleg cigarettes. The final moments of Garner’s life were captured on video and seen by millions. His agonized last words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for the nascent Black Lives Matter protest movement. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict the officer who wrestled Garner to the pavement.
Matt Taibbi’s deeply reported retelling of these events liberates Eric Garner from the abstractions of newspaper accounts and lets us see the man in full—with all his flaws and contradictions intact. A husband and father with a complicated personal history, Garner was neither villain nor victim, but a fiercely proud individual determined to do the best he could for his family, bedeviled by bad luck, and ultimately subdued by forces beyond his control.
In America, no miscarriage of justice exists in isolation, of course, and in I Can’t Breathe, Taibbi also examines the conditions that made this tragedy possible. Featuring vivid vignettes of life on the street and inside our Kafkaesque court system, Taibbi’s kaleidoscopic account illuminates issues around policing, mass incarceration, the underground economy, and racial disparity in law enforcement. No one emerges unsullied, from the conservative district attorney who half-heartedly prosecutes the case to the progressive mayor caught between the demands of outraged activists and the foot-dragging of recalcitrant police officials.
A masterly narrative of urban America and a scathing indictment of the perverse incentives built into our penal system, I Can’t Breathe drills down into the particulars of one case to confront us with the human cost of our broken approach to dispensing criminal justice.
©2017 Matt Taibbi (P)2017 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Narrator Dominic Hoffman's gravelly timbre and tough tone are an ideal fit for this outstanding piece of journalism. There is a lot of dialogue here - a testament to Taibbi's outstanding reporting - and Hoffman expertly characterizes New York and African-American speech without slipping into caricature. He also manages to capture Taibbi's dark and occasionally sarcastic humor when recounting the injustice of the Garner case and others like it." (AudioFile)
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This fresh account of Massachusetts' infamous Bulger brothers unveils a stunning criminal alliance, and with its dual biography format, goes deeper than the New York Times best-selling Black Mass. For the first time, journalist Howie Carr reveals the real story behind the infamous Bulgers, two brothers from South Boston who grew up to control a state.
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ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
- By Tory on 11-18-06
By: Howie Carr
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Get Capone
- The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Eig blows the lid off the Al Capone story. Based on never-before-seen government documents and newly discovered letters written by Al Capone himself, Get Capone presents America's greatest gangster as you’ve never seen him before.
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Get this book
- By Jonathan on 05-13-10
By: Jonathan Eig
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S Street Rising
- Crack, Murder, and Redemption in D.C.
- By: Ruben Castaneda
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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During the height of the crack epidemic that decimated the streets of D.C., Ruben Castaneda covered the crime beat for the Washington Post. The first in his family to graduate from college, he had landed a job at one of the country’s premier newspapers. But his apparent success masked a devastating secret: he was a crack addict. Even as he covered the drug-fueled violence that was destroying the city, he was prowling S Street, a 24/7 open-air crack market, during his off hours, looking for his next fix.
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Some good DC history & time travel
- By Marie on 07-12-16
By: Ruben Castaneda
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Gotti's Rules
- The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia
- By: George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The notorious Gotti family is the stuff of mob legend. The "Dapper Don", John Gotti Sr., and his son John A. "Junior" Gotti ran New York's powerful Gambino crime family and were well known for their flamboyant style and brutal ways, an image perpetuated in popular Mafia mythology. John Alite, a mob hit man, associate, and close friend of the Gottis, has a very different story to tell.
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Garbage read
- By Ray on 09-02-15
By: George Anastasia
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Where the Bodies Were Buried
- Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author T. J. English, the acclaimed master chronicler of the Irish Mob in America, offers a front row seat at the trial of one of the most notorious gangsters of all - Whitey Bulger - and pulls back the veil to expose a breathtaking history of corruption and malfeasance.
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The post-trial story of the Bulger legacy
- By Hugh F on 09-28-15
By: T. J. English
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No Lesser Plea
- Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Book 1
- By: Robert K. Tanenbaum
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Roger "Butch" Karp has been around New York long enough to realize that the judicial system can be dirty and cynical. But he still believes in justice. So when a vicious sociopath tries to dodge a brutal murder charge by convincing the court he is incompetent to stand trial, Karp teams up with firecracker Assistant DA Marlene Ciampi to unleash the full force of their relentless energy, hardboiled wit, and passion for the truth to put the killer away for good. They will accept no lesser plea.
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A Decent LIsten
- By Ted on 08-31-14
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Don't Shoot
- One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America
- By: David M. Kennedy
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.
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Tragically Under-Appreciated
- By Nathan Witkin on 12-02-22
By: David M. Kennedy
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L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
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A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
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Tulia
- Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town
- By: Nate Blakeslee
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Early one morning in the summer of 1999, authorities in the tiny West Texas town of Tulia began a roundup of suspected drug dealers. By the time the sweep was done, over 40 people had been arrested and one of every five black adults in town was behind bars, all accused of dealing cocaine to the same undercover officer, Tom Coleman.
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A Must Read
- By JOHN on 03-23-08
By: Nate Blakeslee
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Being Oscar
- From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas
- By: Oscar Goodman, George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Oscar Goodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and "Lefty" Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge. After 35 years as a defender, he ran for mayor of Las Vegas, and America’s greatest Mob lawyer became the mayor of its sexiest city.
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Not as good as I expected
- By Eric Schurr on 11-16-14
By: Oscar Goodman, and others
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Gangsters of Harlem
- The Gritty Underworld of New York City's Most Famous Neighborhood
- By: Ron Chepesiuk
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the little known history of organized crime in Harlem.
African American organized crime has had as significant an impact on its constituent community as Italian, Jewish, and Irish organized crime has had on theirs. Gangsters are every bit as colorful, intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In the late 1800s, Harlem became a highly fashionable neighborhood.
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weak --reader is terrible!
- By Meyer Rosenbloom on 10-18-13
By: Ron Chepesiuk
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The Murder of Sonny Liston
- Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights
- By: Shaun Assael
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home - of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, Shaun Assael treats the boxer's death as a cold case. The result is a riveting whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas.
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Great read
- By Diane Dodge on 09-14-19
By: Shaun Assael
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The Mayor of Castro Street
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
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Excellent historical perspective of an activist.
- By Chris on 04-14-15
By: Randy Shilts
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What listeners say about I Can't Breathe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-29-17
Thank You
Great Book. Now, I hope people can see why police interest is so low today.
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- LittleBee
- 03-12-18
Powerfully written, story of injustice, MUST READ!
Matt Taibbi has outdone himself after his fantastic book The Divide exposed the profound Injustice of the two tiered justice system in America. I Can't Breathe is a specific look into the heart of policing in America through the abusive racist practices inherent in New York cities criminal justice system. His writing style is unflinching and honest regarding the personal life of Eric Garner and those that knew him, providing heartwarming and tragic details to the larger narrative of historic import.
I would ask every school assign this to students so they understand the society they live in, that our laws do not apply equally, our rights still subject to violation based on race, that the segregation and inequity of the past has very much reemerged with devastating consequences.
Matt Taibbi makes clear the prolonged ignorance, wilful or not, of white America to the extreme injustice, structural racism, and systemic oppression faced by intentionally segregated communities and exposes the history of official misconduct, policing quotas, broken windows, and other misguided policies that led to the criminalization of communities of color. Well researched, fast paced and unsparing in its assessment of NYC's political class, it honors the life of Eric Garner and his daughter's struggle for justice. In light of her untimely death, this book has even more resonance, as it tells the true nature of the system she was still fighting against through her last years of life. Rest in peace Erica.
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- Robert Kohler
- 05-18-18
A must read that explores our racist society
Taibbi does a great job of exploring the life and death of Eric Garner, the man murdered by the NYPD. This was a more complex story that I'd thought. He then goes on to illustrate how Garner's death is emblematic of our society and how it actively marginalizes black and brown people. He adds historical context to his argument later in the book in what is a compelling and ultimately disturbing story. A must read for anyone interested in what "Black Lives Matter" really means.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-30-18
A Must Read
This should be mandatory reading for anyone truly interested in understanding today's racial climate. Excellent!
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- Rod
- 02-01-18
Explores the cause and effect of the event
loved the book. it was very informative and shared a lot of the behind-the-scenes activities and occurrences that led to the events of the day.
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- Rick
- 10-28-17
Eric Garner the man brought to life
This book brings to life Eric Garner. Taibbi shows you Eric in his totality, good and bad, just like he would have wanted. His story is one of struggle and perseverance. He did his best to provide for his family and was murdered by a broken system. This book will make you cry and laugh. I'm left wondering what comes next for Erica,Orta, and America?
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6 people found this helpful
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- Grateful
- 01-15-18
Heartbreaking
This book is about so much more than Eric Garner’s murder ... I am reminded yet again how different and privileged my life is as a white woman in an almost entirely white town and a predominantly white state. I’m grateful not to have to endure the treatment of people of color and I’m deeply saddened and troubled that anyone does ...
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- Terry
- 01-23-20
An unforgettable accounting of Eric Gardner’s murder
Good story and thorough and detailed accounting of Eric Gardner’s murder by New York Police. I was horrified to hear how the New York Police were allowed to murder and blatantly violate civil rights over and over again with impunity. I think everyone should read this as to think this kind of police abuse of the citizens wouldn’t happen to anyone of us is naive. Thanks to Matt Taibbi for writing this book, I only wish he would narrate his own books.
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- Cliente de Kindle
- 09-14-22
Urgently Important Journalism
Matt Taibbi shows how, even if you don't care about systemic unfairness - including public humiliation, violence and murder - toward black Americans, Broken Windows and it's legacy of policing without responsibility or meaningful consequences threatens all of us. This book reveals that America isn't the democracy we think it is, and exactly why.
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- DJG
- 02-16-18
This book changed my life.
I can't even put into words how this book has changed my life and my view of America a country that I thought was free and desegregated but in truth is not behind the never ending rich white bureaucracy of our political figures and corrupt police. It has opened my eyes as sadden me.
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