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New York City Chokehold Law Reinstated by Appeals Court

The law, passed by the City Council in the wake of George Floyd’s in-custody death, made it possible for officers to be charged with a misdemeanor crime if they do anything during an arrest that restricts a person’s breathing “in any way.”

May 20, 2022
1 min to read


New York City’s controversial chokehold ban — dubbed the “diaphragm law”— is back on the books after a new appeals court ruling Thursday.

The law, passed by the City Council in the wake of George Floyd’s in-custody death, made it possible for officers to be charged with a misdemeanor crime if they do anything during an arrest that restricts a person’s breathing “in any way.”

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The law was struck down by Supreme Court Justice Laurence Love as “unconstitutionally vague” last June on a legal challenge from the police unions.

The state’s Supreme Court Appellate Division fully rejected that argument in a ruling Thursday morning, saying the lower court “should not have found the diaphragm compression ban to be unconstitutionally vague,” the New York Post reports.

 

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