Trump says chokeholds ‘very tricky situation’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he’d like to see an end to the police use of chokeholds, except in certain circumstances.
“I don’t like chokeholds,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired Friday. “Generally speaking,” he said, the practice “should be ended.” But Trump also talked at length about a scenario in which a police officer is alone and fighting one-on-one and could have to resort to the tactic.
Chokeholds have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in police custody, which has sparked mass protests demanding justice, racial equality and policing reform. Floyd died after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck and after Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.
A chokehold is a tactic in which an officer puts his or her arm around the neck of a suspect, blocking airflow. The maneuver is banned in many departments across the country already.
In response to the protests, the White House has been working to craft an executive order on policing, though it is unclear if the final version will address chokeholds at all.
Lawmakers have also been working to craft legislation in response.
And even as he endorsed scaling back their use, Trump said chokeholds were sometimes necessary, calling it a “very tricky situation” in his interview with Fox.
“Sometimes if you’re alone, and you’re fighting someone who’s tough, and you get somebody in a chokehold. What are you gonna do now? Let go and say: ‘Oh, let’s start all over again? I’m not allowed to have you in a chokehold,’ ” he said.
“With that being said, it would be, I think, a very good thing that, generally speaking, it should be ended.”