A New York congressman wants to make the use of chokeholds by police officers a federal crime.
Brooklyn Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday that he's sponsoring a bill that would amend civil rights laws that deal with excessive force. The measure would define chokeholds as a deprivation of rights under the color of law.
Hakeem made the announcement outside NYPD headquarters, joined by the mother of Eric Garner, the unarmed man killed in a police chokehold last year on Staten Island.
The medical examiner classified Garner's videotaped death as a homicide. A grand jury declined to press charges against the officer.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
