The New York City Police Department’s Office of the Inspector General just published a report on the use of chokeholds. Here’s a simple guide to understanding what they found.
The New York City Police Department explicitly prohibits the use of chokeholds.
NYPD officers stand in a line on Jan. 6.
Adrees Latif / Reuters
The NYPD's Patrol Guide includes very specific regulations on the use of force. The regulations are meant to prevent unnecessary escalations and to ensure that officers don't hurt civilians in their interactions.
The latest edition of the Patrol Guide defines and explicitly prohibits chokeholds (the emphasis is in the original):
Members of the New York City Police Department will NOT use chokeholds. A chokehold shall include, but is not limited to, any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.
But some cops still use them — sometimes to disastrous consequences.
The NYPD's use of chokeholds came into the national spotlight last summer after cell phone video footage of Eric Garner's death went viral.
Garner died July 18 after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold while trying to arrest him on suspicion of selling individual cigarettes. The city's medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide.
Pantaleo denied breaking the NYPD's rules during his encounter with Garner, calling the act of putting his arm around the suspect's throat "a wrestling move." He was later cleared of all wrongdoing by a grand jury.
Together with other incidents across the country in which unarmed black men were killed by police officers, Garner's death sparked widespread protest in New York City and elsewhere.
The protests, which brought tens of thousands to the streets, became the biggest crisis yet for the year-old government of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had campaigned on a platform of reining in police excess.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1xinj57
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