Month: September 2021

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Tuesday that the Justice Department will tighten restrictions on when its agencies can use chokeholds, carotid restraints and no-knock entries. Garland said: “Building trust and confidence between law enforcement and the public we serve is central to our mission at the Justice Department. The limitations implemented today on the use of ‘chokeholds,’ ‘carotid restraints’ and ‘no-knock’ warrants, combined with our recent expansion of body-worn cameras to DOJ’s federal agents, are among the important steps the department is taking to improve law enforcement safety and accountability.”

Under the new guidelines, federal law enforcement agents will be prohibited from using chokeholds and carotid restraints unless the use of deadly force is authorized. The Justice Department allows such force “when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”  The new Justice Department policies also limits the use of no-knock entries to the execution of warrants in situations where agents believing knocking and announcing before entry would create threat of physical violence.

The use of chokeholds has been under scrutiny after the 2014 death of New York City man Eric Garner, who died of compression of his neck and chest and his prone positioning on the ground as New York City Police officer Daniel Pantaleo held him in a chokehold on the ground. Garner, who had asthma, repeatedly told the police “I can’t breathe.”

Editorial credit: Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com

On Tuesday, a group of eight Senate Democrats introduced their latest version of a sweeping election reform bill to counter the record-number of voting restrictions that have passed in GOP-led states, which they say make it harder for minorities and low-income Americans to cast a ballot.

Now known as the ‘Freedom to Vote Act,’ the modified bill is a compromise after the previous For The People Act failed to pass in the Senate last June. The new bill was crafted by a group that included moderate Sen Joe Manchin, a key swing vote, after he opposed an earlier version of the legislation charging that it was too broad and lacked bipartisan support. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday on the Senate floor that he intends to hold a vote to proceed to the compromise measure as early as next week, which would require 60 senators to support advancing to the bill. It’s unclear whether Democrats can garner the support of 10 Republicans, though Schumer said that Manchin has been discussing the bill with GOP senators.

The bill would aim to promote voter confidence and access by “requiring a uniform national standard for states that requires identification for in-person voting, and allowing voters to present a broad set of identification cards and documents in hard copy and digital form,” a summary of the measure says.

Editorial credit: Rob Crandall / Shutterstock.com