What led to LAPD restricting neckholds in 1982? A doctor remembers
Dr. Richard Allen Williams:
I don't know where he got my number from. But in any event, he said, I'd like to discuss a very delicate medical manner with you.
And Chief Gates asked me if I could verify the fact or, according to him, the fact that African-Americans were very susceptible to chokeholds because they had an anatomical defect in their necks.
And so he was suggesting that Blacks were not normal in regards to their neck anatomy and that therefore it was their fault that they were dying. Not the fault of the police. And he wanted to know if I would agree with him.
And I told him no, Chief Gates, I don't agree with that. I think that this is something that cannot defend. The real reason is that there were more chokeholds being applied to Blacks.
Over a period of a few months, 16 men who were taken into police custody died from chokeholds, and 12 of those were African-American or Black. There was a good deal of controversy in the city about this. At that time. Well, there actually were two chokeholds, there was one that was called the bar hold. And then there was the carotid chokehold, which reduced the blood flow to the brain and caused the individual to pass out and die.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2Bjsri%2Fx6isq2ejnby4e9ahmK1lnJqxbsDOZqOaqJRiv6a%2F06ugnKyZo7RuusScoqGnnJnAbrXNZmhycGJirm6wzpyrqKpdp7KuscybnKur