A police officer in New York has been arrested for using an illegal chokehold on a suspect in an encounter caught on video. The officer was already suspended for using the move, and now faces criminal charges.
Officer David Afanador was arrested on Thursday morning, after he was seen tackling and choking a black male suspect on the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach on Sunday. Footage of the encounter showed Afanador choking the man – identified as Rick Bellevue – for several seconds.
Officer Afanador, Badge # 31730 of the @NYPD100Pct@NYPDnews at Far Rockaway Beach performing an Illegal modern day lynching chokehold on a Black Man until he was unconscious. I demand his immediate firing & criminal charges for breaking the city & state ban. #DefundThePolicepic.twitter.com/wtAmYWxIbE
The Associated Press reported that Afanador will face criminal charges for choking the suspect, as the NYPD banned the move in 1992. Despite the ban, officers have been known to use chokeholds on suspects, often with deadly consequences. Eric Garner died in 2014 while in a police chokehold, and his death sparked a wave of protests.
Now, departments across the US are coming under pressure to ban chokeholds, following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last month. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week bans the move, except in circumstances where an officer’s life is in danger.
Afanador has faced criminal charges for his conduct before. He was indicted in 2014 for assaulting a teenager during a drug arrest, breaking the suspect’s teeth with the butt of his gun. He was acquitted in 2016, though in two previous civil cases against him, the city handed out cash settlements to his alleged victims.
The arrest is just one move the NYPD has made amid the nationwide George Floyd protests. The department has eliminated its plainclothes anti-crime unit, Mayor Bill de Blasio has cut its funding, and the city’s council voted on six reform bills last Thursday. However, officers themselves have claimed that the reforms could lead to a massive crime wave. Shootings in the city rose by more than 350 percent last week, and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea warned on Monday of a “storm on the horizon.”
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