Pas de chokehold, pas de mort

• 16.07.2020 19:23 UTC+02:00
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Whereas, in the US the public protests when police are accused of racially-motivated excessive use of force, in France it's the police who take to the streets.

After Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced a ban on the use of the chokehold on 6^th June, police in many cities threw their handcuffs to the ground, while those in Paris also drove in convoy down the Champs-Élysées sounding their car horns. All very dignified, I'm sure.

Defending the police use of chokeholds, Xavier Leveau of the police union told the AFP news agency that "head restraint is very important during handcuffing". He insisted it was nothing like the method used in the death of George Floyd. "We're not going to hold him down for eight minutes, we're going to hold him down just for the handcuffing... we don't have a substitute technique. So how do we do it today?"

BBC News droid

Yet Cédric Chouviat died of asphyxiation and a broken larynx after only about twenty seconds' restraint, although other techniques, in addition to the chokehold, were used against him.

Meanwhile, Christophe Castaner is no longer France's interior minister. (shock)