California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants a statewide standard of police use of force as his state is dealing with protests in response to the death of George Floyd.
Newsom tweeted:
"Protesters have the right to protest peacefully – not be harassed. Not be shot at by rubber bullets or tear gas. Today I am calling for the creation of a new statewide standard for use of force in protests. Acts of violence against peaceful protestors will not be tolerated."
Newsom elaborated during a press conference he wanted to ban the "carotid holds," a hold that puts pressure on the sides of someone's neck.
"We train techniques on strangleholds that put people's lives at risk," Newsom said during a press conference. "Now we can argue that these are used as exceptions. But at the end of the day, [a] carotid hold that literally is designed to stop people's blood from flowing into their brain, that has no place any longer in 21st-century practices and policing."
Newsom has traveled the state on a listening tour to get ideas from residents.
He said he wanted to collaborate with law enforcement officials, California Legislative Black Caucus and community leaders on drafting the language for the new standards.
The unrest throughout California and the rest of the country began after Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after a white officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
"The world watched as the 200 lb. weight of a police officer was leveraged on the neck of George Floyd for over 8 minutes," Democrat Assemblyman Mike Gipson, the lead author of the legislation, told the Los Angeles Times. "We all witnessed this execution. This was far beyond the existing law that authorizes a peace officer to use reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape or to overcome resistance."
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