Story at a glance
- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gave remarks Tuesday afternoon at George Floyd’s funeral in Houston, where Floyd grew up.
- “What that order will say is that in this city, we will ban chokeholds and strangleholds,” Turner told the audience.
- The Houston mayor also said he would proclaim June 9 “George Perry Floyd, Jr. Day” in the city.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) announced during George Floyd’s funeral Tuesday that Houston police will no longer be permitted to use chokeholds on people in their custody.
Turner said the order was being drafted by the city attorney, and he would sign it when he returned to city hall.
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“What that order will say is that in this city, we will ban chokeholds and strangleholds,” Turner told mourners during the service for Floyd, who was raised in Houston.
“In this city, we will require de-escalation. In this city, you have to give a warning before you shoot. In this city, you have a duty to intervene. In this city, we will require comprehensive reporting,” Turner said.
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The Houston mayor also said he would proclaim June 9 “George Perry Floyd, Jr. Day” in the city.
“We honor him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us were able to breathe,” Turner said.
Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police during an arrest on Memorial Day, after one officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. The incident, which was caught on camera by a bystander, sparked widespread outrage and large-scale protests against police brutality and racial injustice all across the country.
In response, several other cities, including Minneapolis, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Dallas have banned chokeholds following Floyd’s death.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said last Friday he would immediately instruct police to stop training in carotid holds, a type of chokehold that cuts blood flow to the brain. Chokehold restraints, which cut off airflow through the windpipe, are already prohibited in California.
New York lawmakers on Monday passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which criminalizes the use of chokeholds that result in injury or death. The use of chokeholds by the NYPD has been banned since 1993.
Garner, a black man, was killed in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is expected to sign the bill into law.
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