Police violence: US Department of Justice bans security forces from the stranglehold

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A graffiti commemorates the violent death of George Floyd

Photo: Nikos Frazier / AP

The US Department of Justice has largely banned federal security forces from using strangleholds on suspects.

The only exception is if the use of potentially fatal force is permitted due to imminent danger.

Strangleholdings or the impairment of the function of the carotid artery by officials would have "too often led to tragedies," said the Justice Department.

In addition, the use of house searches or arrests, in which officials do not knock in advance and announce their arrival, should be severely limited.

The order applies, among other things, to the Federal Police FBI, the drug investigators of the DEA as well as the weapons authority ATF and the federal prisons.

So far, no uniform rules have applied to the various authorities with regard to the controversial methods of the security forces, it said.

The use of strangles and positions that compromise the carotid artery came into focus last year after the brutal death of African American George Floyd in a police operation in Minneapolis.

Creation of the "Black Lives Matter" movement

Videos are used to document how police officers pushed the unarmed man to the ground.

Police officer Derek Chauvin, who has now been sentenced to 22 years in prison, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for a good nine minutes while Floyd pleaded for him to breathe.

Eventually Floyd passed out and died.

The officers arrested him on suspicion of paying with a fake $ 20 bill.

Many law enforcement agencies banned George Floyd's stranglehold after his death.

Floyd's violent death on May 25, 2020 triggered demonstrations against racism and police violence in the USA under the label "Black Lives Matter".

The Black Lives Matter movement also took to the streets in Germany.

mrc / dpa