Chilling New Pussy Riot Video Takes On Injustice In America

Pussy Riot released a chilling new track and video today featuring band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova being slowly buried alive. "I Can't Breathe," the Russian band's first song in English, is dedicated to Eric Garner, the New York man killed in a police chokehold last summer. "This song is for Eric and for all those from Russia to America and around the globe who suffer from state terror — killed, choked, perished because of war and state-sponsored violence of all kinds — for political prisoners and those on the streets fighting for change. We stand in solidarity," reads a statement released by the band. The single-shot video features the two women donning Russian riot police uniforms. One shovel of dirt at a time, they are buried alive in a shallow grave. An abandoned pack of "Russian Spring" cigarettes lay in the foreground at the beginning of the shot, a nod to the term used by supporters of Russia's military action in Ukraine.  The lyrics are as eerie as the video's visuals. "It's getting dark in New York City / It's getting tight in New York City / I need to catch my breath," the women sing, hauntingly, before musician Richard Hell begins to recite Garner's final words, "I can't breathe," which he repeated 11 times before suffocating to death.  "I Can't Breathe" is a song of protest and a battle cry for change and justice. A second version of the video includes footage of NYC's protests as well as Garner's grieving family. It's a must-watch, but it's certainly not an easy one.