Lesson on holds
Cops get video on new laws
A new NYPD training video warns cops not to subdue people with chokeholds, by sitting on them, or by putting any pressure on their necks, chests or backs — all of which are crimes under recent city and state law.
The seven-minute video was sent to all NYPD officers on their department-issued smart phones.
Besides showing newly illegal moves, the video encourages cops to pull colleagues using illegal moves away from suspects — in the same manner by which one cop might pull another out of a gun’s line of fire.
The new laws were enacted amid the national uproar over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, who was recorded kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
The NYPD has banned chokeholds for years — though some officers have continued to use them, including Daniel Pantaleo, who was fired and stripped of his pension for using a chokehold that killed Staten Island resident Eric Garner in 2014.
A state law making police use of chokeholds a felony took effect June 18. At the same time, the City Council passed a law ensuring that a cop could face misdemeanor charges if they are accused of sitting on, kneeling, standing or in any way compressing a person’s neck, chest or back.
“These acts are defined as criminal acts even if an act was unintentional and no injury was sustained by the subject,” the video states, noting that the department “unsuccessfully advocated to amend” the new law.
Cops convicted of violating the laws could face up to a year in jail, officials said.
Rank-and-file cops have voiced outrage over the laws, saying they make arresting people much harder and could put their lives in danger.
“A ‘what not to do’ video accomplishes nothing. Just tell us what we should do to arrest a resisting suspect without violating the new law,” Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said when asked about the video Friday. “We’re not getting that guidance from the City Council, the Mayor or the NYPD.”
Officers have long been trained not to use chokeholds and not to kneel, sit or stand on peoples’ backs or chests, Detective Vince Caputo of the NYPD’s physical training and tactics department says on the video.
“But the new laws have changed things,” Caputo says on the video, noting that such moves are now violations of law.
Cops are still able to pull subjects to the floor and use arm and leg holds as the subject is handcuffed, Caputo explained on the video.