No More: Minneapolis bans police chokeholds

Minneapolis agreed Friday to ban chokeholds and neck restraints by police and also to require officers to attempt 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 metropolis and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which launched a civil rights investigation this week in response to the death of Floyd. THE TOWN Council approved the agreement 12-0.

Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said the changes are necessary to stop ongoing harm to persons of color “who've suffered generational pain and trauma therefore of systemic and institutional racism.”

“This is just a start,” Lucero said. “There is much more work to do here, and that work must and you 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 curriculum to avoid teaching officers how to use a neck hold that blocks the blood circulation to the brain.

The decision on whether to utilize the hold is up to each police agency, and Newsom said he will support legislation to outlaw the technique. The San Diego Police Department and NORTH PARK County Sheriff’s Department are among the agencies that announced this week that they might stop using the hold, referred to as a carotid hold or sleeper hold.

“We train techniques on strangleholds that put people’s lives at risk,” Newsom said. “Which 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 work of sworn employees to avoid or make an effort to stop inappropriate force or force no more needed. The agreement would additionally require officers to immediately are accountable to their superiors when they see make use of any neck restraint or chokehold.

Floyd died after Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck, ignoring his “I can’t breathe” cries and bystander shouts even after Floyd stopped moving. His death has set off protests around the world.

Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers are charged with aiding and abetting. All have already been fired.

Lucero said the changes go beyond the department’s current policies. Any officer who doesn’t try to stop the improper use of force would face the same discipline as if that they had used improper force.

The agreement also would require authorization from the authorities chief or a deputy chief to use crowd control weapons such as for example tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Such tactics have already been used in Minneapolis and other cities previously week to disperse protesters.

The stipulation also sets an activity for metropolis and state to negotiate longer-term changes, such as for example changing state laws which make it difficult to fire problem officers.

Minneapolis police Chief Medaria Arradondo said in a statement that he “will work on efforts to really improve public trust, public safety and transformational culture change” of the poliice force.

“I am bringing forth substantive policy changes,” said Arradondo, whose statement did not provide details.

Meanwhile, a man who was simply with Floyd on the night time he died told THE BRAND NEW York Times that his longtime friend didn’t resist arrest and instead tried to defuse the problem before he finished up handcuffed on the floor.

Maurice Lester Hall was a passenger in Floyd’s car when police approached him May 25 because they taken care of immediately a call about someone using a forged bill at a shop. Hall told the newspaper that Floyd was trying to show he had not been resisting.

“I could hear him pleading, ‘Please, officer, what’s all of this for?’” Hall told the days.

Authorities say Hall, whose name is spelled Morries Lester Hall in court records, is an integral witness in the state’s investigation in to the four officers who apprehended Floyd. Hall’s identity wasn’t made public until the Times’ report. Bruce Gordon, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Hall in the beginning gave a false name to officers at the scene.

Hall told ABC’s “HELLO America” that the problem escalated quickly and police grabbed Floyd, put him in a squad car, dragged him back out and “jumped on the back of the neck.” He said Floyd was put in an ambulance and that he didn’t know his friend had died before next day, when he saw bystander video on Facebook.

“I’m going to always remember seeing worries in Floyd’s face because he’s such a king,” Hall told the days. “That’s what sticks with me, seeing a grown man cry, before seeing a grown man die.”

Hall’s attorney, Ashlee McFarlane, told The Associated Press that Hall would not be doing any longer interviews. She declined further comment.