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New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton voiced full-throated opposition Thursday to a City Council bill that would criminalize the use of chokeholds, and said a slew of other NYPD oversight bills before the council are also unwarranted.
“I think clearly the chokehold bill, which is talking about criminalizing the chokehold, is totally inappropriate, totally unnecessary, misguided, and uninformed,” Bratton told reporters after speaking to an audience at a “Brooklyn Newsmakers” breakfast held at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering in downtown Brooklyn.
He then thanked Mayor Bill de Blasio for announcing earlier this week that he would veto the bill.
“I think the mayor has spoken that he would not support it, and I’m very appreciative of that support,” he said.
The bill, sponsored by Council Member Rory Lancman (D-Queens), would make use of a chokehold a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in prison, a $2,500 fine, or both. Currently, chokeholds are only banned under NYPD guidelines. The bill would apply to all New Yorkers.
Both Bratton and de Blasio have argued that the ban under police guidelines is sufficient, and that outlawing chokeholds altogether could put police officers in danger.
Earlier this week, a report from the NYPD inspector general showed how 10 officers who used chokeholds in the line of duty, from 2009 through 2012, were barely disciplined for using the maneuver, if disciplined at all.
