City Council Passes Chokehold Ban Mayor Promises To Sign

NEW YORK — City Council passed Thursday a ban on police chokeholds Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is ready to sign, despite weeks of his arguing for an exception for potentially fatal situations.

"I'm now convinced this is the right legislation to move forward with and I will sign it," de Blasio said. "It's the right thing to do."

The legislation — which criminalizes any police use of restricting air or blood flow — excludes another exception proposed by the de Blasio's administration that would allow police officers to rest their weight on detainees' backs or chests.

The legislation goes one step further than state law, signed this month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that only applies to cases resulting in serious injury or death.

City Council also approved bills reaffirming the right to record police activity and banning cops from shielding their badge numbers from the public.

Council Member Rory Lancman, who sponsored the chokehold ban, celebrated the passage of legislation he argued should have been enacted years ago.

"The NYPD banned chokeholds decades ago, but tell that to Eric Garner and the hundreds of men and women choked by police officers even since his death,” said Lancman.

“Today the Council does what the NYPD has failed to do: police the police by making it an actual crime for a cop to put someone in a chokehold or to sit, kneel, or stand on them so they can't breathe."