French police will no longer be allowed to use chokeholds during arrests, the interior minister said Monday, banning the immobilization technique after it came under renewed criticism following George Floyd’s death in the United States, reports The Associated Press.
With the French government under increasing pressure to address accusations of brutality and racism within the police force, interior minister Christophe Castaner announced Monday that “the method of seizing the neck via strangling will be abandoned and will no longer be taught in police schools.”
He said that during an arrest, “it will be now forbidden to push on the back of the neck or the neck.”
“No arrest should put lives at risk,” he said.
Yet Castaner stopped short of banning another technique — pressing on a prone suspect’s chest, which also has been blamed for leading to asphyxiation and possible death.
Floyd died May 25th after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped responding. Three days later, another black man writhed on the street in Paris as a white police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest.
French lawmakers have called for such practices to be banned, and they have raised criticism in other countries too.
France has seen several protests over the past week sparked by Floyd’s death, which is stirring up anger around the world.
President Emmanuel Macron has stayed unusually silent so far both about Floyd’s death and what’s happening in France. Macron’s office said he spoke to the prime minister and other top officials over the weekend, and asked Castaner to “accelerate” plans to improve police ethics that were initially promised in January.
Castaner acknowledged that there are racist police officers and promised “zero tolerance” for racism within the force going forward.
He ordered police officers to be systematically suspended when they are suspected of racist acts and comments, in addition to criminal proceedings.
“Racism has no place in our society and even less” so among police, he said.