Council poised to pass NYPD chokehold ban, six years after Eric Garner’s death
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ACTIVISTS MARCH IN MANHATTAN ON THE FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ERIC GARNER’S DEATH in 2019, GARNER DIED AS A RESULT OF A CHOKEHOLD ADMINISTERED BY NYPD OFFICER DANIEL PANTALEO. AP PHOTO/CRAIG RUTTLE.
By David Brand
The City Council is poised to pass a bill criminalizing banned police chokeholds, like the maneuver used to take down Eric Garner, more than five and a half years after a version of the bill was first introduced.
The legislation, sponsored by Queens Councilmember Rory Lancman since 2014, would make it a misdemeanor for NYPD officers to use a chokehold while making an arrest. Such chokeholds are already banned under NYPD policy, but have been used regularly with few consequences.
Speaker Corey Johnson moved to hold a vote on the bill Sunday after a weekend of demonstrations sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. He held a press conference to rally support for the measure Tuesday.
Lancman declined to dwell on the lack of support for the measure over the past six years.
“I wish everything in life moved quicker than it does and I’m happy we’re finally doing it,” Lancman said Tuesday. “I’m hopeful it will save lives and demonstrate to the public that we can take action to stop police brutality.”
The killing of Floyd sparked civil unrest in cities across the country and led to the latest push by councilmembers to standardize discipline for police officers and crack down on aggressive force. The bill to criminalize police chokeholds now has 29 council sponsors.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was suffocated to death by a Minnesota cop who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Lancman introduced an initial version of the chokehold bill in November 2014, four months after a Staten Island cop used the banned maneuver to arrest Garner, a black man accused of selling loose cigarettes. Garner’s death as a result of the chokehold was one of several high-profile incidents that galvanized the modern movement against racist police violence. His final words, “I can’t breathe,” have fueled the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.
Floyd echoed the same plea for mercy, “I can’t breathe,” before dying under the knee of the Minnesota cop. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to veto the chokehold bill if it passed in 2015, but he didn’t have to. The bill failed to make it to a vote.
On Sunday, he said he would support a bill to criminalize the use of chokeholds except in cases where “an officer is fighting in a life and death struggle.”
“That needs to be recognized if we're going to codify it,” he said. “If the legislation does that appropriately, I'm ready to support it.”
