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What constitutional authority does the fedgov have to ban choke holds that are employed in a non discriminatory manner? I know everyone wants to virtue signal, but this is ridiculous. If there is constitutional authority for the feds to make choke holds ILLEGAL in all of the states, then I wish they would cite it.

As a police officer, I was trained in the use of choke holds after the Rodney King incident. It was considered to be preferable to beating a suspect into submission with a baton. When it was applied properly it was 100% effective, much more so than pepper spray or Energy Directed Weapons. I used it on several occasions and never killed or seriously injured anyone. The suspect would be groggy for a few moments which would give enough time to place them into handcuffs.

I think that this use of force option should be left to the states. if they wish to ban it then fine. Just be aware that another use of force option for a WELL TRAINED (note use of phrase, don’t DEFUND Police training) Police Officer will no longer be available.

Are they speaking of restricting or eliminating federal funding for non-compliant states only???

1. Thank you for protecting civilians.

2. The Rodney King incident was crazy, the police had limited options due to their policies and Mr. King was surrounded by police officers. He must of been high on something because a normal person would of submitted to the officers once surrounded. I read a report which stated ‘the beating was the officers' last resort for subduing King’. No the last resort was to shoot Mr. King and the officers did not use this last option. Most people do not put themselves in a police officer’s shoes and think what they would have done. The suspect was asked to surrender, then asked in a louder, more auroratative voice to surrender. He was tased which did not have effect. Since LA did not allow a choke hold, two options left, beat him or shoot him. What would the average person do with only those two options left?

People are choked unconscious every day in combat sporting events and even training. The key is not holding it too long after the person becomes unconscious. Fighting a police officer brings lots of risk to both sides. Effectively, every fight between a cop and a suspect is a life or death struggle. If you can end the struggle with a choke, everyone gets to walk away, as long as you know when to release it. By choking out a suspect, you may be saving their life or your own.

Using chokes on a restrained suspect is whole different situation.

I would point out that the 80s and 90s LAPD had no shortage of officers highly trained in various chokeholds and they still had people die as a result, from officers that *weren’t* being racist/punishing extrajudicially/settling scores, etc.

The genuine problems seemed to revolve around a few general categories - one, the officer had adrenaline induced time sense dilation and simply maintained the hold longer than they thought. I spoke to an retired officer that had that happen to them and it basically destroyed him psychologically.

Two, the officer thought the perp was faking it and continued to maintain the hold, when the perp wasn’t faking it.

Third, anatomical anomalies, where blood vessels weren’t constructed like they were supposed to be. Chief Gates of the LAPD at the time notoriously speculated that some races might have anatomy that made them more susceptible to bad reactions to a choke hold - there may be something to that, but nobody has ever done a study.

I don’t see that *any* amount of training can resolve the above. There were cases of senior instructors in the LAPD having people die on them for one of the items cited above.

As for their authority, it’s the same one that allowed the Feds to set a national speed limit of 55mph even though there’s no direct authority for that in the Constitution. They don’t force the desired action through law, they simply say, “If you do not do X, you will receive no Federal funds. You are free to not do X, but if you do not, you will not get the money you want.”