We all saw Eric Garner die. We all, George W. Bush included, agree that Eric Garner was murdered. But such superficial agreement risks papering over the real causes of his death, making it certain that something like this will happen again. We all bore witness to the crime, but now we have to ask ourselves, who really killed Eric Garner?

Despite what the criminal justice system says, the obvious answer is Daniel Pantaleo, and it must never be forgotten that this man is a murderer. What’s more, as many have argued, Pantaleo’s crime was made possible precisely because of a deeply entrenched system of institutional racism. And this has logically been met with a demand to fix what is seen as a broken justice system. Yet there is a risk that a too-narrow focus on the police, courts, and the justice system alone will obscure the deeper causes of Garner’s death.

The Staten Island resident was allegedly selling individual cigarettes when he was killed. New York City’s total cigarette tax, which is $5.85 per pack, creates a kind of black market in cigarettes, and consequently an opportunity for some — like Garner, whose asthma forced him to quit his job — to cobble together a living.