Naturally Ferguson protesters said this was racist and awful and a sin against humanity.
Via Gothamist:
Mike Stables said he doesn’t know anyone serving in law enforcement, but still felt compelled to travel to New York from Denver, Colorado to attend last night’s “Pro-Cop Rally” in front of City Hall. Stables even sold t-shirts marked with the phrase, “I Can Breathe” to a few demonstrators.
“It’s not a divisive effort at all,” he said, insisting that his goal was to “bring communities together.” Asked why he would design a t-shirt with a perversion of the phrase uttered nine times by a dying man who was choked by an NYPD officer, Stables replied, “Lebron has a worldwide podium and he exercises that and does it in a very eloquent fashion, but I think we need to also perhaps garner some attention, no pun intended.”
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and the police unions had discouraged their officers from attending the rally, which claimed the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter.
Roughly fifty people showed up. When tens of thousands of people are marching in the streets under the banner of justice, it seems like a bad time to publicly proclaim your faith in the status quo.
“Get a job, for Christssake,” Carmen Rios shouted at a group of counter-protesters holding signs bearing Eric Garner’s name. “He resisted arrest, and he had asthma, it’s his problem. He was doing something illegal. Isn’t he breaking the law? Why is that so difficult to understand?”