Court upholds NYC law banning types of police restraints that killed George Floyd and Eric Garner

A New York City law that forbids police from using chokeholds or sitting, kneeling, or standing on someone's torso during an arrest was upheld Monday by the state's highest court. 

The law, passed after the death of George Floyd, had been challenged by police unions that said the new rules about compressing a person's torso were vague and would lead to too much second-guessing of officers involved in physical struggles. 

The New York Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the law's language is clear enough. 

“We recognise that police officers are called upon to respond to dangerous and volatile situations requiring real-time assessment of the level of force necessary to safeguard the public and ensure officer safety,” the court wrote. 

However, it noted that for officers to be found criminally liable under the law, they had to apply the banned force voluntarily “not accidentally,” and that “such conduct must fall outside the parameters of justifiable use of physical force.” 

The court also ruled that it does not conflict with an existing state law banning police chokeholds. 

The city's law was enacted as governments across the country prohibited or severely limited the use of chokeholds or similar restraints by police following Floyd's death in 2020, which occurred as a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. 

The New York Police Department has long barred its officers from using chokeholds to subdue people. New York state has a law banning police chokeholds that was named after Eric Garner, who died after a New York City officer placed him in a chokehold in 2014. 

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