Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, on Monday, June 8, had angered the police by announcing the removal of the chokehold as a concession to race activists who had demonstrated against “police violence”.
Faced with the police outcry that this announcement had triggered, Castaner retracted some of his remarks banning neck restraints, or neck holds. These refer to the practice of officers in which they use an arm or a leg to restrain someone’s neck. The technique is now a subject of controversy.
The term “chokehold” is often used, but police generally categorize neck restraints in two ways: the stranglehold and the chokehold. Strangleholds – also called carotid restraints, sleeper holds or blood chokes – temporarily cut off blood flow to the brain and are meant to render a subject unconscious for a time.
Chokeholds – also called airway holds – restrict breathing by applying pressure to the windpipe.
The French minister had banned both restraints, but then backpedaled and decided to ban only strangleholds but not respiratory restraints. The “first cop of France” has suspended this ban until an effective method can replace it, reported French daily Le Figaro.
“Pending the definition of a new framework and insofar as circumstances require, the so-called strangulation technique will continue to be implemented with measure and discernment and will be replaced as and when individual training is provided,” explained the director general of the national police Frédéric Veaux in a memo.
The police chief also specified that a working group will be set up on Wednesday June 17, “to define a substitution technique”. He will make his findings known “before September 1”.
In his note, Frédéric Veaux also wanted to recall that “the ‘rear grip’ to immobilize the standing person or force him on the ground to handcuff him will always be taught and applied”. His remark contradicted Christophe Castaner, who had announced, during his press conference, that the method “will be abandoned and will no longer be taught in police and gendarmerie schools” because it “entailed dangers”.
No comments.
By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.