The politics of policing in San Diego | Michael Smolens

Mayor Kevin Faulconer and his appointed police chief, David Nisleit, on Monday announced SDPD will immediately stop using the carotid restraint.The neck hold used to subdue people has come to be viewed as dangerous and unnecessary, and minority groups in particular have condemned it. Other police departments increasingly have abandoned the practice.San Diego police officials had continually defended the tactic, as they did in an in-depth article last year by Lyndsay Winkley of The San Diego Union-Tribune.The reversal was stunning enough. But Faulconer wasn’t done. Later on Monday, as protesters again marched downtown, he threw his support behind a 30-plus-year effort to establish an independent commission to investigate alleged police misconduct and examine police practices.“That is moving forward,” the Republican mayor said at a news conference. “It will be on the ballot. . . I look forward to giving it my full support.”Read the column: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2020-06-03/column-san-diego-moves-quickly-toward-police-reforms