Diaphragm bill found unconstitutional

From the NY Times:

In a victory for the city’s powerful police unions, a state Supreme Court judge struck down a city law banning police officers’ use of chokeholds and other physical restraints on Tuesday, saying the wording of the law was “unconstitutionally vague.”

The law, passed last summer, had been met with fierce resistance from police unions, who sued the city last fall over its passage. The language of the statute — which forbids officers from compressing a suspect’s diaphragm — was overly broad, the suit said, and made it nearly impossible for officers to physically engage suspects, even if the use of force was in good faith.

Justice Laurence L. Love agreed: “The phrase ‘compresses the diaphragm’ cannot be adequately defined as written,” he wrote in his ruling in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The judge encouraged the city to revise its law, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, at his daily news conference on Wednesday, urged lawmakers to move quickly to do so.

Let's hear it for Rory Lancman and company for not knowing how to pass a bill that doesn't violate the Constitution.

The NYPD is banned from applying chokeholds during arrests

NY Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a suite of six NYPD reform bills Wednesday, including a ban on chokeholds, while acknowledging concerns that the new laws will make it harder for cops to do their jobs.

“People want to be safe. They need to be safe. They want to work with the NYPD and they want respect in turn,” de Blasio said while signing the legislation package in the Bronx after joining activists to paint “Black Lives Matter” on Morris Avenue between between 161st and 162nd streets.

“I also want to be honest when there are concerns out there. It makes sense to talk about it, not to run away from it,” de Blasio said.

On the bill that will make it a criminal offense for cops to use chokeholds, de Blasio said, “I know many in the police department including many I truly respect are concerned.

“Because although they agree 100 percent and it’s been the policy of the police department, we cannot have chokeholds, there’s concern around some of the additional language around diaphragms.”

In addition to criminalizing chokeholds, the bill includes a prohibition on other restraints of a person’s diaphragm or ability to breathe such as sitting, kneeling or standing on someone’s chest or back.

Interesting that the Blaz wants to have conversations about policing policy now when he was pretty comfortable excusing the tactics employed by his NYPD during the George Floyd protests and his idiotic curfew.