Christine Greaves, 23, is suing the New York Police Department over her 2020 arrest. Footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows Greaves shouting “I can’t breathe” while a police officer appears to kneel on her, just weeks before George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis while repeating the same phrase.
“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” shouts Greaves in the video repeatedly, as a person filming says “get your knee off her back.” The 23 year old is then dragged away by several NYPD police officers into a vehicle as onlookers beg police to stop.
According to the lawsuit obtained by The Root, Greaves attended a funeral with her boyfriend during the COVID-19 lockdown and was standing on a front porch when officers arrived around 8 p.m. Greaves attempted to film the officers, who “forcibly grabbed her and slammed her down on the floor — punching, kicking, screaming, and yelling at her.”
The lawsuit notes that another much larger funeral gathering held by white mourners in an affluent area during the lockdown was treated differently — suggesting racial bias within the department.
Greaves, who is asthmatic, began to scream that she couldn’t breathe and demanded to be released. According to the lawsuit, an officer kneeled on her neck while two other officers grabbed other parts of her body. She was arrested for “obstructing governmental administration in the second degree,” and “disorderly conduct.”
According to the lawsuit, Greaves was unlawfully searched and denied food or drink. She claims that officers also denied her requests to use the bathroom, insisting that she “piss on herself.” She says they also denied her requests to be transported to the hospital for her injuries from the arrest.
Greaves is now suing the nine officers who arrested her and the City of New York in the Eastern District of New York. She’s asking for both compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at the trial.