Bed-Stuy Lawmaker Pushes Anti-Chokehold Bill

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn congressman's bill banning chokeholds is part of a police reform measure introduced in Congress.

The bill shepherded by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries bears the name of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man died after a NYPD officer held him in a chokehold in 2014. Six years later, George Floyd died as a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Both men gasped "I can't breathe" — words that hundreds of thousands of protesters nationwide have chanted as they demonstrated the last two weeks against police brutality.

"Chokehold and other police tactics such as a knee to the neck are inherently dangerous and present an unreasonable risk of serious bodily injury or death," Jeffries said during a Wednesday hearing.

Such strangulation tactics will be unlawful under the Justice In Policing Act of 2020, Jeffries said.

It's a larger police reform bill introduced by Jeffries, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris, among others. The bill aims to eradicate police brutality through various accountability and transparency measures.

Jeffries, who represents Bed-Stuy and other Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, actually introduced the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act in 2019. It's co-sponsored by his Brooklyn congressional colleagues Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velazquez.

Police who use chokeholds and similar tactics will be in violation of federal civil rights law under the bill.