New York City’s ban on police chokeholds, diaphragm compression upheld by state’s high court

New York’s highest court on Monday upheld a New York City law that bans police from using chokeholds or compressing a person’s diaphragm during an arrest.

The New York Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the law is clear in its language and does not conflict with an existing state law that prohibits police from using chokes.

The city’s law came as governments across the country banned or severely limited the use of chokeholds or similar restraints by police following Floyd’s 2020 death, which occurred when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, along with other law enforcement unions, has sued the city over its law, arguing that its language is vague about what officers are allowed to do during an arrest. In a statement, John Nuthall, a spokesman for the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said the ruling will provide clarity for officers.

“Although this is not the outcome we had hoped for, the Court’s ruling is a victory in the sense that it will provide our officers with greater certainty when it comes to the statute, because under the Court’s ruling at its at least it must be proven that an The officer’s action ‘actually impairs the person’s ability to breathe,’ was ‘not accidental’ and was not a ‘justified use of physical force,’” Nuthall said.

The New York Police Department has long banned its officers from using chokeholds to subdue people. New York state also has a law banning police chokeholds, which is named after Eric Garner, who was killed when a New York Police Department officer placed him in a chokehold in 2014.

While the city’s law prohibits choking, it also includes a provision that prohibits officers from compressing a person’s diaphragm. Such compression, even while kneeling, sitting, or standing on a person’s chest or back, can make it difficult to breathe.