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France barred police from using chokeholds after its own Black Lives Matter protests, but it glossed over other forms of police brutality

Jun 9, 2020, 17:15 IST
Business Insider
A demonstrator holds a sign with the slogan "Where are the sanctions" during a Black Lives Matter rally in Paris on June 6, 2020.Getty
  • France on Monday banned police officers from using chokeholds when detaining suspects.
  • "The method of seizing the neck via strangling will be abandoned and will no longer be taught," said Christophe Castaner, the country's interior minister.
  • The move follows protests over George Floyd's May 25 death in the US. Those in France also centered on the 2016 killing of Adama Traore, a Black man who died after three officers pinned him down.
  • However, Castaner did not ban the use of ventral tackling, a dangerous move where officers pin suspects face down. The tactic caused the death of a delivery driver in 2019.
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France banned police from using chokeholds during arrests, after people across the country protested against police brutality and racism.

"The method of seizing the neck via strangling will be abandoned and will no longer be taught in police schools," Christophe Castaner, the country's interior minister, said on Monday, according to Le Monde.

"It will be now forbidden to push on the back of the neck or the neck. No arrest should put lives at risk."

The move comes after the death of George Floyd, a Black American man, at the hands of white police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25.

Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground by placing his knee on his neck, and held him there for more than eight minutes.

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A protester kneels at the site of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on June 1, 2020.John Minchillo/AP

Protests over Floyd's death and police brutality erupted across the US and spread around the world.

In France, the death reignited the debate around the 2016 death of Adama Traore, a Black man who died after three Paris police officers used their body weight to pin him to the ground.

On May 29, 2020, a panel of experts cleared the three officers of killing Traore.

The banning of chokeholds came hours after President Emmanuel Macron told French police forces to "accelerate" ethical and procedural reform.

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French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in Evry, south-east of Paris, on June 9, 2020.LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

However, there are other controversial tactics used by French police which Castaner made no mention of.

One is known as "ventral," "prone," or "belly" tackling.

It involves officers pinning someone to the ground face down, usually placing their bodyweight on the small of their back.

The UK's College of Policing says "there is an increased risk of causing positional asphyxia" when using the tactic.

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"People restrained in the prone position should be placed on their side or in a sitting, kneeling or standing position as soon as practicable," the college wrote.

Demonstrators in France had called for the move to be abolished in January 2019, after Cédric Chouviat, a delivery driver, died after police used the move on him.

A Black Lives Matter protest in France.REUTERS

A number of senior French police union figures are disputing the move to ban chokeholds, however.

Philippe Capon, general secretary of the UNSA National Police Union, said the world now seems to think "everyone is nice, except the police, who are mean," according to Agence France-Presse.

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Frederic Lagache, a senior official with the Alliance Union, also said police would be left "street fighting" equipped with just "the use of tasers."

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