the chokehold

African American legal scholar and former prosecutor, Paul Butler, uses the chokehold as a metaphor for understanding how racial oppression functions in the U.S.  The chokehold, ‘justifies additional pressure on the body because the body does not come into compliance, but the body cannot come into compliance because of the vise grip that is on it.’ The Chokehold means that what happens in places like Ferguson and Baltimore—where the police routinely harass and discriminate against African Americans—is not a flaw in the criminal justice system. Ferguson and Baltimore are examples of how the system is supposed to work. The problem is not bad apple cops. The problem is policing itself.

 
 
 
 

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In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed and where chokeholds had been permitted until after his death in May 2020, the police used neck restraints at least 237 times [since 2015] and rendered 44 people unconscious.  George Floyd and Eric Garner have been the most high-profile deaths of Black men caused by police restraint techniques, But there are many others. these African-American men and women died from asphyxia brought on by restraint procedures including: Neck restraints like The Chokehold [in which pressure is put on the front of the neck and throat, cutting off air] and The carotid restraint or ‘knee-to-neck’ [In which an officer applies pressure to vascular veins to cut off blood flow to the brain]; Compression restraints [Kneeling, sitting or standing on a person’s chest or back while attempting to restrain him or after the person is ‘secured’ by handcuffs, rope or belting]; hogtying or hobbling [in which a person is forced into a prone position, handcuffed and put in ankle restraints, then the hand and leg restraints are connected, resulting in an elevation of the upper and lower body]; or from Positional or postural asphyxia caused when the body is forced into a position that prevents breathing. The list is partial, collected from the Fatal Encounters Database, which began recording in 2000.