Chokeholds, rubber bullets and tear gas targeted in California police reform proposals

California Democrats on Monday formally introduced legislation backed last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom to ban police from using carotid artery restraints and chokeholds when detaining suspects.

Carotid restraint is used as a tactic to subdue a suspect by restricting blood flow through neck compression. When overdone, the strategy can be deadly.

“These methods and techniques are supposed to save lives, but they don’t,” said Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, a former police officer who wrote Assembly Bill 1196. “They take lives.”

Newsom endorsed the proposal last week during a press conference to address ongoing statewide protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Autopsy reports determined Floyd died from “asphyxiation from sustained pressure” that cut off his ability to breathe.

Tecoy Porter, senior pastor of Genesis Church in Sacramento’s Meadowview neighborhood said the bill wouldn’t “change the heart and mind of a racist,” but would “at least make them think twice” before using the strangling tactic.

“Nobody deserves to die with a knee on their neck,” Porter said.

Demonstrations to demand justice for Floyd’s death and to protest police brutality have continued for more than eight days in cities large and small, from the nation’s capital to small towns in rural America.

Calls for change have since popped up within statehouses and police departments, encouraging advocates who’ve long demanded use-of-force reform.

Congressional Democrats unveiled a bill Monday that would make it easier to prosecute police. The Sacramento and Davis police departments this weekend announced they would halt carotid restraints. And in Minneapolis, the city council voted Sunday to begin deconstructing its police force.

One of the state’s top police unions, Peace Officers Research Association of California, said on Saturday that it would support a national police use-of-force reform akin to what the Legislature passed last year with Assembly Bill 392 and Senate Bill 230, which aim to raise the legal standard for when officers can use deadly force.

“George Floyd was a man in distress and crying out for help, and his death should not have happened,” association President Brian Marvel said in a press statement. “It is time for America to adopt a national use of force standard, to mandate that all peace officers have a duty to intercede, to raise the bar for use of force training standards for all peace officers in every city and state across this country.”

AB 392 elevated California’s deadly force standard from “reasonable” to “necessary” based on the totality of circumstances police face in certain situations. Newsom signed the law last August following a yearslong legislative battle between advocates and law enforcement groups.

At least 7,000 officers have since taken a two-hour course on the law’s requirements through programs provided by the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, and more than 13,000 officers have viewed an informational video on the law.

Despite promises of progress, activists and protesters said ending carotid restraint is just a start. They point to evidence of police using tear gas, pepper spray, bean bags and rubber bullets to quell crowds of largely peaceful protesters in recent weeks as proof that more needs to be done.

A group of Assembly Democrats last week announced plans to write a bill that would regulate rubber bullets.

Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, who plans to cosponsor the legislation, called police use of harmful projectiles a case of “brutaliz[ing]” those who are trying to exercise their right to free speech. Kalra’s office said he is also “interested in pursuing” legislation to regulate tear gas use, although those conversations are in very early stages.

It’s another idea that Newsom has already indicated his support for.

“Protesters have the right to protest peacefully — not be harassed,” Newsom said in a Friday tweet. “Not be shot at by rubber bullets or tear gas. Today I am calling for the creation of a new statewide standard for use of force in protests. Acts of violence against peaceful protestors will not be tolerated.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Chokeholds, rubber bullets and tear gas targeted in California police reform proposals."