Just two days after the New York Assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that Houston police will no longer be able to use chokeholds on people in their custody, according to The Hill.
What We Know:
- On Tuesday, Mayor Turner gave remarks at George Floyd’s funeral in Houston, where Floyd grew up.
- There, he announced that an order banning the use of chokeholds and strangleholds was being drafted by the city attorney and he would sign it when he returned to city hall.
- “In this city, we will require de-escalation. In this city, you have to give a warning before you shoot. In this city, you have a duty to intervene. In this city, we will require comprehensive reporting,” Turner added.
- Floyd died on Memorial Day as a result of a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
- Mayor Turner also announced that June 9th would be “George Perry Floyd, Jr. Day” in the city of Houston. “We honor him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us were able to breathe,” the mayor noted.
Mayor Turner’s order comes at a time of national outrage that has lead to protests around the country. Other cities, including Minneapolis, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Dallas, have also banned the use of chokeholds by police officers. The move comes as citizens around the country have been seeking to defund or dismantle the police in major U.S. cities.
