New York City’s ban on police chokeholds and diaphragm compression has been upheld by the state Supreme Court
New York’s highest court on Monday upheld a New York City law prohibiting police from using chokeholds or pressure on a person’s diaphragm during an arrest, rejecting a challenge by police unions to the law passed after the death of a police officer. George Floyd.
New York Court of Appeals, unanimously resolutionHe ruled that the law was clear in its language and that it did not conflict with existing state law prohibiting police from using chokeholds.
The city’s ordinance came at a time when governments across the country have banned or severely restricted use Bottlenecks Or similar restraints by police after Floyd’s death in 2020, which occurred when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
New York City’s Police Benevolent Association, along with other law enforcement unions, sued the city over its law and argued that its language is ambiguous regarding what officers are allowed to do during an arrest. In a statement, John Nuttall, spokesman for the New York City Police Benevolent Association, said the ruling would provide clarity for officers.
“Although this is not the outcome we had hoped for, the court’s decision is a victory because it will provide our officers with greater certainty when it comes to statute, because under this court’s decision, it must at least be proven that the officer did in fact act,” Nuttall said. obstructs a person’s ability to breathe,” was not “accidental,” and was not a “justified use of physical force.”
The New York Police Department has long prohibited its officers from using chokeholds to subdue people. New York State also has a law banning police chokeholds which is named by this name Eric Garnerwho was killed when a New York Police Department officer put him in a chokehold in 2014.
The city ordinance, while prohibiting chokeholds, also includes a provision prohibiting officers from applying pressure to a person’s diaphragm. Such pressure, despite kneeling, sitting, or standing on a person’s chest or back, can make breathing difficult.
