First, about the chokehold:
According to his lawyer, Pantaleo told the official inquiry he “never exerted any pressure on the windpipe.”
His denial, even if true, is largely irrelevant. There are two main types of chokeholds, and during a struggle, one may easily slide into the other. Pressure to the windpipe—an air choke—directly cuts off the ability to breathe and can kill quickly. Pressure to the veins and arteries of the neck—a blood or carotid choke—stops blood flowing to and from the brain and cuts off its oxygen.
Both holds can kill, and that is why, back in 1993, the NYPD
banned them. Chief John F. Timoney, then commander of the department’s Office of Management Analysis and Planning, said: “Basically, stay the hell away from the neck. That’s what [the policy] says.”
And then, Garner’s second cause of death: positional asphyxia caused by “compression of chest and prone positioning.” Even when used alone, extended prone restraint—placing a suspect facedown, hogtied or with hands cuffed behind—has caused untold in-custody deaths by suffocation and is therefore prohibited by many police departments, including the NYPD. But when officers also kneel or push on the restrained person’s back or neck, as they did with Garner, the danger of positional asphyxia escalates. And when the suspect has been pepper sprayed, is intoxicated or has medical conditions such as Garner’s—obesity, asthma and a weak heart—the danger skyrockets.
Dr. Michael Baden, former NYC chief medical examiner and later State Police chief forensic pathologist, who was hired by the Garner family to review the autopsy report,
told the
New York Times: “Obese people especially, lying face down, prone, are unable to breathe when enough pressure is put on their back. The pressure prevents the diaphragm from going up and down, and he can’t inhale and exhale.’’
