We should be careful before we ban choke holds. We should consider what we are doing. A neck hold is a common technique used when wrestling. I would imagine, most people when wrestling use neck holds.
And, therein is why we should be careful of banning them. When the officer is wrestling down a suspect, if he is afraid of putting a lock on that suspect's neck, he is deprived of one of the most helpful tools in wrestling.
Now, there is some current thinking that we should encourage our officers to be more willing to wrestle rather than using weapons. There is danger to that as the gun can be grabbed from the officer's holster while they wrestle. But, if we do encourage more wrestling, let it not go unnoticed that if the officer cannot toss his arm around the suspect's neck, he will be at disadvantage as they wrestle.
If we are to have a law against choke holds, let it be that choke holds shall not last more than 30 seconds or some such -- and I do not know that I favor even that.
It might be argued, and the law even written so, that there is a difference between neck holds and choke holds. A neck hold is but a lock on the neck, while a choke hold restricts the breathing. Even allowing this, the officer is going to be more apprehensive to use a neck hold for fear it will be perceived as a choke hold, or for fear that it might slip into a choke hold.
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