New York passes law banning chokeholds
New York State enacted a law banning police chokeholds in an effort to end officer violence against African Americans.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law 10 bills passed by the state legislature on June 12, including a bill banning the use of chokeholds by law enforcement officers. The bill is named after Eric Garner, a black man who died after being choked by New York police in 2014.
New York State also repealed a law that designated documents related to police professional evaluations as “confidential,” including disciplinary records. The public and media will be able to access these documents under the Freedom of Information Act without a court order.
Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press conference in New York City, June 12. Photo: Reuters.
The decision comes after weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Minneapolis Police Department said Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed Floyd, had faced 18 complaints of abuse over his 20 years on the job. Details of the complaints have not been released.
Governor Cuomo also signed an executive order forcing New York state's nearly 500 police departments to "develop plans to renew and modernize strategies and programs in their communities."
The measures aim to address some of the key issues raised by mass protests across the US, including racial inequality, excessive use of force by police and transparency in the process of filing complaints against officers.
Any police department that fails to adopt its new plan by April 2021 will have its budget cut, Governor Cuomo said at a press conference with New York state Democratic leaders and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
"These bills represent some significant changes that will prevent this from happening again," Sharpton said, adding that threatening to defund police departments that refuse to change is "a model we should be aiming for in addressing 21st-century civil rights issues in this country."
