Gothamist76%
First NYPD officer charged under George Floyd-inspired chokehold law set to stand trial 17%
By Samantha Max68%
7/24/2026, 12:30:58 PM
Keywords: George Floyd, New York City, Nypd, Public Safety, Chokehold, Strangulation, Assault, Police Misconduct
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Confirmation Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 20.1% saturation with 168 hits. Analysis detected 921 faulty-reasoning hits from 836 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32.6% and a BS Rank of 17% (17,709 of 21,230 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 83.40% of the article peer group.
A Bronx jury will soon decide whether an NYPD officer accused of choking a man until he lost consciousness violated a local law passed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder six years ago.
Jury selection is underway in the trial of Officer Omar Habib, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing, assault and using an unlawful method of restraint.
Habib is the first officer to be prosecuted under a local law passed by the City Council that bars the use of certain restraints that can restrict someone’s ability to breathe.
The measure was among a raft of police and criminal justice reforms enacted across New York state and across the country after Floyd’s killing on May 25, 2020.
Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Habib’s trial serves as a test case for the local law, which faced legal challenges from police unions but was ultimately upheld by the state’s highest court.
“This is one of the most difficult and thorny problems in policing that can be imagined,” said Steven Wasserman, an adjunct associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Habib’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On July 29, 2023, Habib responded to a call at a catering hall on Eastchester Road in the Bronx about an intoxicated man who had gotten into a fight, according to the Bronx district attorney’s office.
At a pretrial hearing last year, prosecutors played body-worn camera footage in which the man — whose name has not been publicized — could be heard asking why he was being arrested and refusing to be handcuffed.
The footage shows Habib and other officers trying to arrest him.
Exactly what happened next was unclear in the footage.
According to prosecutors, Habib put the man in a chokehold so tight that he momentarily lost consciousness.
As the man lay on the floor, prosecutors said Habib told him to get up.
The man could be heard in the video accusing Habib of choking him.
“I didn’t choke.
Nobody choked you, bro,” Habib said, according to a transcript of the video that prosecutors filed in the case.
“You’re awake right, your [sic] breathing?"
The camera continued to record as Habib left the scene in his police car.
Once alone in his police vehicle, he could be heard breathing loudly and speaking to himself, according to the footage shown in court last.
“What’d you do, bro?”
Habib could be heard asking himself.
Prosecutors said he also uttered, “I’m done.”
Habib’s defense attorney asked a judge not to let jurors see the video, but the judge ruled that the footage can be used at trial.
Test case for post-George Floyd law
The 2020 city law prohibits the use of restraints that restrict the flow of air or blood by compressing someone’s windpipe or carotid artery.
It’s a misdemeanor charge with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The most serious charge Habib faces is second-degree strangulation, a class D felony that carries a seven-year maximum sentence.
Wasserman, a former public defender, said charging an officer with the 2020 chokehold law could deter other officers from using excessive force.
“I think it is important that there be a law against placing somebody’s life at risk when you’re arresting them,” he said.
But Wasserman said it is “extremely difficult” to draw the line between legal and illegal conduct.
“The question is whether it’s going to have a daunting effect on legitimate and restrained arrests,” he said.
“You’ve really got hope that that is not going to happen.”
The Queens DA’s office charged an officer with violating a similar law that limited the use of police chokeholds on the state level in June 2020, just days after that measure took effect.
But a grand jury declined to indict the officer.
Spokespeople for the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island DA’s offices said their prosecutors had not pursued any cases with the city’s 2020 chokehold law so far.
Habib is currently assigned to a unit that monitors surveillance footage of public housing, a common assignment for officers accused of misconduct.
Since joining the department in 2007, he has faced seven civilian complaints.
Investigators substantiated five of them, according to records from the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
The officer lost 35 vacation days and was suspended five days for using excessive physical force in 2009.
The department placed Habib on dismissal probation for a year after investigators found that he used excessive force again and placed someone in a chokehold in 2017.
While chokeholds became illegal more recently, they have long been banned under NYPD policy.
The 2017 incident was caught on camera and resulted in a $744,000 settlement, according to city records.
Habib also forfeited five vacation days for sexual harassment and discourtesy in a 2022 incident, according to police watchdog records.
Analysis
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