NYPD Boss to Send Cops to Class Instead of Outlawing Chokeholds
In July, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put Eric Garner in a chokehold, and Eric Garner died. This is bad, commissioner Bill Bratton admits, but the answer isn't making chokeholds illegal. It's making cops sit in a classroom for a few days, then letting them back out.
Today, Bratton revealed one result of the "top-to-bottom review" of NYPD training he promised after Garner's violent death: Cops—starting in three precincts, then expanding citywide—will take a three-day course on avoiding confrontation and restraining resisting suspects without causing harm. From CBS:
"First, how to talk to an initially uncooperative person with the goal of avoiding a physical confrontation and, second, how to physically retrain a suspect who continues to resist arrest without harm to that individual or the officer," Bratton said.
Bratton said officers currently only receive annual firearms training. He said the new training is aimed at changing the culture of the department.
"This cannot be just a quick response to recent circumstances of incidents," he said. "This is an essential part of the training regiment going forward."
A noble undertaking, to be sure—and certainly more worthwhile than Twitter school—but it leaves something to be desired in terms of concrete change. What will go on in use-of-force training, and how do we know beat cops will actually apply what they learn?
One easy fix would be making the use of chokeholds—which are already banned by department rules—criminally punishable. But that, Bratton said at a City Council hearing today, is a bridge too far. DNAinfo reports:
Asked by Queens Councilman Rory Lancman during a City Council hearing whether he would support a law to make the "dangerous" move illegal, Bratton said: "I would not."
The response drew groans form some anti-police brutality advocates in the Council chambers and caused several of them to throw their hands in the air in a "don't shoot" pose that was used widely by protesters in Ferguson, Mo. after the police shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
"I don't feel that there's a law that's necessary to deal with that issue," Bratton said after the hearing. "I think there are more than sufficient protocols in place to address a problem."
What protocols? Daniel Pantaleo, for now, is still on desk duty.
[Image via AP]