PBA head says union will back Habib’s appeal after conviction
A Bronx jury found former New York City police officer Omar Habib guilty on Thursday of using an illegal chokehold on a suspect — the first officer convicted under a New York City restraint law enacted after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
The jury convicted Habib of strangulation, a felony that can carry up to seven years in prison, and of “unlawful methods of restraint,” a misdemeanor that applies specifically to police officers and bars them from using chokeholds that restrict a person’s ability to breathe.
Prosecutors said Habib placed a drunk and disorderly man in a chokehold while trying to arrest him in 2023, squeezing so tightly that the man lost consciousness. “Immediately following the incident, members of the Internal Affairs Bureau responded, initiated an investigation, and referred the incident to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office,” an NYPD spokesperson said Thursday. The spokesperson confirmed that Habib has been fired from the department.
The 2020 restraint law was among a series of police changes New York City implemented in the wake of Floyd’s death. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, died after a police officer knelt on his back and neck for roughly nine minutes. His killing prompted nationwide protests over police brutality and racism.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the local restraint law in July 2020, making officers’ use of a chokehold or chest compression a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison. Similar bans were passed in other municipalities after Floyd’s murder.
Habib retained his own legal counsel for the trial. Patrick Hendry, head of the Police Benevolent Association that represents NYPD officers, said the union would support him in an appeal.
“This verdict is just further proof of a grim reality: Every second police officers spend on this job puts them at risk of criminal prosecution, and pervasive antipolice propaganda has made it incredibly difficult to receive a fair trial based on nothing but the facts and the law,” Hendry said.