Minneapolis bans police chokeholds after Floyd death.
Minneapolis agreed Friday to ban chokeholds and neck restraints by police and to require officers to try to stop any other officers they see using improper force, in the first concrete steps to remake the city’s police force since George Floyd’s death.
The changes are part of a stipulation between the city and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which launched a civil rights investigation this week in response to the death of Floyd. The City Council approved the agreement 12-0.
Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said the changes are necessary to stop ongoing harm to people of color “who have suffered generational pain and trauma as a result of systemic and institutional racism.”
“This is just a start,” Lucero said. “There is a lot more work to do here, and that work must and will be done with speed and community engagement.”
Floyd’s death is prompting reexamination of police techniques elsewhere. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching officers how to use a neck hold that blocks the flow of blood to the brain.
The decision on whether to use the hold is up to each law enforcement agency, and Newsom said he will support legislation to outlaw the method. The San Diego Police Department and San Diego County
Sheriff’s Department are among the agencies that announced this week that they would stop using the hold, known as a carotid hold or sleeper hold.
“We train techniques on strangleholds that put people’s lives at risk,” Newsom said. “That has no place any longer in 21st-century practices and policing.”
The Minneapolis agreement requires court approval and would become enforceable in court, unlike the department’s current policies, which already cite the duty of sworn employees to stop or try to stop inappropriate force or force no longer needed. The agreement would also require officers to immediately report to their superiors when they see use of any neck restraint or chokehold.