Experts Say George Floyd's Death Once Again Shows Police Officers Should Be Banned From Crushing People’s Necks

Experts Say George Floyd's Death Once Again Shows Police Officers Should Be Banned From Crushing People’s Necks

Police experts say it’s a “very, very risky” and dangerous maneuver that should be banned except in deadly force incidents.

Haberfeld said that most language in police manuals across the US is “convoluted” and allowed for an officer’s discretion.In this case, it appears Floyd was already handcuffed, in addition to being unarmed, and was not deemed to be violent or a threat, Haberfeld said.

“I don’t see how [the officer] can justify using unconscious restraint,” she said.Jon Shane, a retired Newark police captain, told BuzzFeed News his department had never used this type of knee-to-neck restraint during his time there between 1989 and 2005.

“I can’t see any justification for this,” Shane, who is now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told BuzzFeed News. “When you’re going after somebody’s neck, it has to be in response to a deadly force situation. I can’t see anything in the video that warrants deadly force."

Shane — who is an instructor for academic programs attended by police officers — said that officers are trained not to leave subjects in a “prone position” and handcuffed for very long because it runs the risk of causing the fatal condition of “positional asphyxia.”

Positional asphyxia — a phenomenon used to describe an in-custody death caused when police use dangerous restraint positions that interfere with the person’s ability to breathe — has long been written about, anddebated, in policing literature.Shane said officers usually hold subjects in a prone position on the ground to “control them,” but it needs to be done for a period of time short enough to just get their handcuffs on.

“Then you either roll them on their side or sit them up,” Shane said. “You don’t leave them in a prone position.”Positional asphyxiation is deadly when compounded by risk factors like intoxication due to drug or alcohol use, obesity, mental illness, and other pre-existing health conditions, Lawrence Heiskell, an emergency physician and a veteran reserve police officer with the Palm Springs Police Department, wrote in a

2019 articlefor Police Magazine.He wrote that officers are taught to avoid restraining people face-down or to do it for a very short period of time.How the subject is restrained “can also increase the risk of positional asphyxia death,” Heiskell wrote. “Placing a knee or weight on the subject and particularly any type of restraint hold around the subject’s neck can be problematic.”

“These maneuvers are very, very, risky,” Shane told BuzzFeed News. “I personally would never apply one.”Shane added that there is “no question” police departments should ban the use of this kind of neck restraint, except in deadly force situations.Other types of neck restraints have long been the subject of litigation for decades, Shane noted, which is why many police departments have stopped using them.

Last December, a police officer in Maryland wasconvictedof assault after a viral cell phone video showed him kneeing a handcuffed suspect in the head.“A knee drop to [the] back of the head of an individual in cuffs, on his stomach, with several officers around, can be nothing but a criminal act,” prosecutors told jurors during the trial.

In 2013, three police officers in Las Vegas wereorderedby a federal appeals court to pay $1.6 million to a man for using excessive force against him during a 2001 encounter in which they put him in a chokehold and kneed his neck and back, forcing him to undergo nine spinal surgeries.

“A reasonable officer” would have known that their actions “violated clearly established law to use a choke hold on a non-resisting arrestee who had surrendered, pepper-spray him, and apply such knee pressure on his neck and back that it would cause the collapse of five vertebrae in his cervical spine,” the court wrote in its opinion.

WHERE ARE THEIR TASERS? They are safer and more effective! And police should be banned from using unnecesary force on unarmed civilians and concerned citizens. BlackLivesMatter JusticeForGeorgeFloyd This seems like an TheOnion headline... Brilliant. Bloody brilliant. Now, if you guys can scoop in which direction the sun will come up.... You really had to round up ‘experts’ for that, huh?

“Should be banned from crushing people’s necks...” Ya think, duh!! 🤔 This should never be an acceptable maneuver. If a cop stomping on someone's balls for 5min straight seems outrageous why wouldn't a knee to the carotid artery be a big effin deal?! That psychopath committed murder that he seemed all too pleased to orchestrate.

They needed a report for that? Wabbasi007 I am from Pakistan i am shocked now and didn't stop my tears it's very painful. “SHOULD be banned from CRUSHING PEOPLES NECKS.” 🤔 That’s it That’s the tweet Was “do not crush people necks” not a given? These are adults, not fucking children. If they constantly have to be told “do not kill people for no reason” then they shouldn’t be doing the job!

More like all uses of excessive force should be banned Shame on you America 😏 I can't believe we even have to discuss this. Police have become disgusting frankly. So am I to assume that this cop was so poorly trained that putting his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck was the only way he could hold him? What a hateful weak ass! Being fired is the least that should happen to him and the other officers. How about some jail time?!

Wabbasi007 Such an animality brutal act of inhumanity. 😭😭😭 Once again.... Seriously? We need Experts to Say Officers Should Be Banned From Crushing People’s Necks ? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? By you i mean just everyone. This murder plain and simple. Experts says bla bla bla.. Nobody fucking cares about what expertd says. WE WANT TO SEE THOSE KILLERS BEHIND THE BARS!!!

hey buzzfeed did you need zoom in on a picture of a man being *murdered* to make this point!!! ffs use a different cover picture and stop assaulting black folks on their twitter timeline by reminding them white supremacy values their lives so little. use this one. White cops should be banned in every state.

You need experts to state this PSA 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 I'm pretty sure police officers are already banned from murder. The method is irrelevant. Why would they even be allowed to crush people's necks? Was this headline written by TheOnion ? Police brutality! 😡 THIS JUST IN!!.... EXPERTS SAY NOT RESISTING ARREST IS THE THE BEST WAY TO NOT GET YOUR NECK CRUSHED!....that and not putting your neck in a neck crusher! OBVIOUSLY 🙄

you don't say Who are the experts just wondering? Former police or anything? you don’t say? i wish abstaining from crushing people's necks was common sense

Amy Klobuchar Inserts Herself Into the George Floyd Case Without Saying 'George Floyd,' 'Police' or 'Murder'Four Minnesota police officers have been fired after video footage from the arrest of George Floyd, who died as a result of injuries he sustained during the arrest, appears to show Floyd pleading for his life as an officer cuts off Floyd’s air supply with his knee while fellow officers watch and do nothing. And as the story unfolded, Minnesota Senator and vice-presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar wasted no time releasing a statement that said absolutely nothing, including George Floyd’s name.

Police use tear gas on Minneapolis protesters demonstrating against death of George FloydProtestors converged upon the scene of George Floyd's death on Tuesday, some carrying signs reading 'I can't breathe.' Mistake Social Distancing at its finest.... there is a difference between tear gas and pepper spray. Your headline is click bate...However I’m 💯 with these protestors

4 Minneapolis Police Officers Fired Over Death Of George Floyd, Man Pinned Down By CopBREAKING: Four Minneapolis police officers were fired following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after an officer kneeled on his neck while he was handcuffed on the ground, shouting that he couldn’t breathe. Good, now they need to be charged for murder Why do you need to use you knee? Are you serious? This is unbearable to watch. And people ask why people of color, are so angry? Look how were treated. Losing their jobs, isn’t enough. MURDERER. Lock them up!!!

4 Minneapolis Police Officers Fired Over Death Of George Floyd, Man Pinned Down By CopBREAKING: Four Minneapolis police officers were fired following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after an officer kneeled on his neck while he was handcuffed on the ground, shouting that he couldn’t breathe. Fired is good, now let’s make it 4 arrests for murder THEY NEED TO BE ARRESTED FOR MURDER Now how about the arrests for first degree murder?

A WWI memorial in Pittsburgh was vandalized on Memorial Day, police say'I almost feel like crying,' one Navy veteran said. 'As a veteran, this is the worst thing you could do on the worst possible day of all days.' Police in Pennsylvania are investigating after a World War I memorial was vandalized on Memorial Day A Trump diehard probably did it 😂 Fvcin' Trumpsters.

Florida man kidnaps girl, 17, to get through Covid-19 checkpoint, police sayA Florida man was charged with kidnapping/false imprisonment last week after forcing a 17-year-old girl to drive him and another woman through a Covid-19 checkpoint, police say. The Florida Keys have been closed to visitors since the coronavirus outbreak. I hope the young girl is. Very brave of her. Ok the article says they’re residents of the keys, so why were they not allowed back in? Wtf is a Florida man? FL strikes again.