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December 28, 2020

Carotid Physiology and Neck Restraints in Law Enforcement: Why Neurologists Need to Make Their Voices Heard

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Neurology, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
JAMA Neurol. 2021;78(3):267-268. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.4669

I can’t breathe” has become an international rallying cry against police brutality after the high-profile murders of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, and George Floyd on May 25, 2020. These powerful and tragic words have been uttered by dozens of other people, predominantly Black and brown people, across the country under similar circumstances involving vascular “neck restraints” or “carotid restraints”: James Thompson, Allen Simpson, Rodney Lynch, Dustin Boone, Roger Owensby Jr, Carl Glen Wheat, Gerald Arthur, and Torris Harris.

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