Using chokeholds has been against NYPD policy since the 1990s, long before Eric Garner made the words “I can’t breathe” a rallying cry, and it’s been against New York City law since 2020, when George Floyd uttered those same words as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and killed him.
NYPD Officer Omar Habib is accused of using the prohibited technique not once — but twice. After he used the tactic in 2017, the police department placed him on probation for a year, and the city agreed to pay more than $740,000 to settle a civil lawsuit. He’s now on criminal trial, charged with strangling a man in the Bronx in 2023 who prosecutors said lost consciousness but ultimately survived. If convicted, Habib faces up to seven years in prison.
Habib is the first NYPD officer to be prosecuted under the 2020 law banning chokeholds, which the City Council passed just days after Floyd’s murder. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing, assault and using an unlawful method of restraint…