Governor of California, Gavin Newsom has ordered that police officers stop being taught how to use a hold that can block the flow of blood to the brain.
He ordered that the state police training program be altered to accommodate the new directive banning the carotid neck hold.
The governor gave the order following nearly two weeks of protests occasioned by the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, who died on May 25 after a police officer knelt on his neck for minutes.
The Memorial Day incident sent shock waves across the nation, sparking protests that soon turned violent and resulted in looting of small businesses and destruction of pubic property.
Since then, some police departments have moved to end the use of carotid holds that stop or slow the flow of blood to the brain.
Newsom said that hold has no place in the 21st century and would no longer be tolerated in America’s most populous state.
According to Los Angeles Times, the city’s Police Commission severely restricted the use of carotid neck holds in 1982 after the deaths of a dozen black men and then-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates’ notorious comment that African Americans were dying because the “veins or arteries of blacks do not open up as fast as they do in normal people.”
The city of Minneapolis, where Floyd died, agreed Friday to ban the use of all choke holds, including neck restraints, as part of a settlement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
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