Police chiefs across Central Pa. said their officers are not instructed to use the knee-on-neck restraint that a Minneapolis cop used against a handcuffed man for several minutes until he died in a now-viral video that outraged the nation.
George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was held down Monday by the Minneapolis officer’s knee as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn't breathe. Bystanders begged the officer to stop but the officer continued for several minutes even after Floyd apparently went unconscious. Meanwhile three other officers stood by and did not intervene. All four were later fired by the police chief.
The death prompted massive protests in Minneapolis and other large cities. Prosecutors on Friday announced manslaughter and third-degree murder charges against the main former officer, Derek Chauvin.
Local police leaders said they did not recognize the prolonged maneuver used by Chauvin.
“I began my law enforcement career in 1989 in the military so I have been a police officer for over 30 years,” said Lancaster Police Chief Jarrad Berkihiser. “What you are seeing in the video has never been taught in any training related to use-of-force or defensive tactics.”
Derry Township Police Chief Garth Warner said the video was difficult to watch.
FILE - In this Monday, May 25, 2020, file frame from video provided by Darnella Frazier, a Minneapolis officer kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe. (Darnella Frazier via AP, File)AP
“We do not instruct our officers to do this,” he said. “There are many ways to restrain a handcuffed individual and this method is not approved, nor used by our officers. This incident is disturbing and should raise some serious concerns, questions, and conversations.”
While police leaders typically are reluctant to “second-guess” officers from another agency after a fatal use-of-force incident, the death of Floyd, which was recorded by a bystander, drew nearly universal condemnation by police chiefs across the country.
“There is no need to see more video. There is no need to wait to see how ‘it plays out,’” Chattanooga, Tenn., Police Chief David Roddy tweeted. “There is no need to put a knee on someone’s neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don’t have an issue with this ... turn it in.”
Lancaster’s police chief said officers in his agency were disheartened by the video for the inhumane treatment of Floyd and the knowledge that it would reflect poorly on the majority of good police officers.
“Every good police officer in this country will now have to bear the brunt of the disgusting actions of one officer and the inaction of three other officers,” he said.
Officers need to step in if another officer is losing it, said Carlisle Police Chief Taro Landis.
“Everyone’s human,” he said. “People can lose it. But we have to make sure someone there has a cool head. We always try to make sure we have a supervisor on scene to make sure officers are acting within their training.
“There are zones of the body you do not go to because it could result in death,” Landis said. “The neck and throat is one of those zones.”
Law enforcement leaders need to stand up and be accountable when a tragedy like this happens, Landis said.
“We’ve got to stand up and say what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong,” he said. “There’s no way in the world we can say this was right. It wasn’t right.”
Upper Allen Police Chief James Adams said his officers would only use a technique involving the neck or carotid artery if the officer’s life was in immediate jeopardy.
“It would have to be a last resort,” Adams said. “Everything we do with use-of-force has one object in mind: compliance. The video I saw showed a man lying on the ground in handcuffs and it would be hard to argue he wasn’t complying. Once you gain compliance, you need to deescalate.”
Adams also said his officers are trained to respond to every medical complaint by someone in custody. If someone says they have chest pain, they go to a hospital, he said. If someone says their handcuffs are too tight, the officer is expected to check the handcuffs every time and document it, Adams said.
Some law enforcement experts told CNN the knee-to-neck restraint is dangerous and unnecessary and banned by many departments.
Seth Stoughton, an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina, told the news network that keeping suspects in the prone position, meaning face-down with their hands cuffed behind their backs, for an extended period of time is dangerous in and of itself, because it's known to cause positional asphyxia.
Someone in that position can draw enough breath to gasp or speak in spurts, but they can't breathe fully, so they gradually lose oxygen and fall unconscious.
On top of that, Stoughton said, pressure to the neck can be fatal in number of other ways, including fracturing the cervical spine.
The cause of death for Floyd has not yet been released.
Many police chiefs in Central Pa. said they were using the incident to help with training and as a reminder for officers to deescalate and treat people with humanity and dignity. But Adams said the videotaped death was so horrific that it was clear to everyone, including officers and the general public, that the police tactics were out-of-bounds.
“It was so extremely obvious,” he said.
Adams said he was interested in learning more about what happened before the prolonged neck restraint to try to better understand what went wrong.
Berkihiser, of Lancaster, questioned whether Floyd had even committed a crime before he was arrested. Minneapolis police were called to the scene on a report that someone tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, but was that person Floyd, and if so, did he even know the bill was a counterfeit?
Berkhiser said he has many questions.
“We see video of Mr. Floyd in handcuffs, standing and being walked towards a police car. So how did he end up on the ground?” he said. “We do have arrested persons refuse from time-to-time to walk to a police car or get into a police car but that does not mean he should have ended up in that position for over five minutes with an officer kneeling on his neck. What training does the police department have? How do you justify kneeling on a person in handcuffs and not getting him into a recovery position, meaning sitting up or at least lying on his side?”
Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter concurred that his officers are not approved to use neck restraints like what former Officer Chauvin used in Minnesota.
“It was a tragic incident that the nation witnessed,” Carter said. “That video showed he was not resisting in any way or manner that I could see. He was telling them he could not breathe, and the officer still didn’t take his knee off his neck.”
The incident prompted the Swatara Police Chief Darrell Reider, president of the Dauphin County Chiefs of Police Association, to put out the following statement Friday:
“The Dauphin County Chiefs of Police Association extend our condolences to the family of George Floyd who died by police action in Minneapolis. We join the rest of the country in praying for justice for George Floyd. While details remain unknown, it is clear in the video that techniques used to restrain Mr. Floyd are not taught nor endorsed by our police agencies.”
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