It’s not a chokehold because his forearm is not flat across his throat. The chokehold involves applying pressure from the middle of the forearm to the windpipe. The forearm is flat, the opposite hand holds down the wrist and both arms pull back to push the Adam’s apple inward. Such maneuver blocks air flow and will nearly always get quick compliance. The assailant forgets about his fight and focuses on getting breaths of air. The chokehold itself is not dangerous as a 10-15 second blockage of air hurts nobody. Where the fatalities occur is when the fragile thorax gets injured causing swelling and air blockage for an extended period. That Garner had no trauma to his windpipe verifies that there was no damage and so the neck restraint had no direct effect on his breathing during or after.
What Pantaleo performed is a vascular neck restraint which forms a triangle around the neck and pressure is applied to the sides of the neck. You can see the acute angle and forward projection of the elbow, indicating such hold. This is the hold that Pantaleo was using and what he was trained for. The intent is to slow the flow of blood to the head for 5-15 seconds which will quickly make the assailant compliant. Obviously applying this hold for more that 20 seconds is inadvisable, Pantaleo holds it for about 5 seconds. It is usually placed in the category of intermediate force along with baton strikes and tazer zaps and is generally considered a safer alternative. It is extremely rare for any injuries to occur.
However, Pantaleo’s position in the exact moment of the photo is a bit sloppy, as the ideal position of the VNR is in direct alignment with the chin. So likely he did not get the effect of the hold he was intending and likely only applying pressure to one side of the neck. Neither was it is having any impact on his throat. What ultimately got Garner to become compliant was his asthma attack which then triggered a chain of events that led to his fatal heart attack.
Unfortunately not enough had been said about Garner’s 15 second aggressive wrestle with 4 police officers as a contributing factor in his death. Watch the video in slow motion. You can see how much Garner was fighting with the police during his takedown. For a severe asthmatic to undergo that kind of exertion is an deadly asthma attack waiting to happen.
"It's like arguing with an Inuit over the 47 different kinds of snow. LOL! :)"
You're right - it WASN'T a chokehold.
It was a "suckerchoke" (similar to a suckerpunch) - where the little weasel Pantaleo jumped him from behind to start the festivities.
It would have been glorious if Garner had had the presence of mind to launch himself backwards, with Pantaleo as a landing pad...