The Alliance Police Nationale (APN), France’s largest police union, issued a statement last week against the French Interior Ministry’s recent ban on the “chokehold” technique for detaining suspects in situations where the detainee is resisting arrest. “[There is] a lack of reliable means to replace this technique,” says the statement. “The Alliance requests the maintenance of the ‘head control’ method.”

The French Ministry of the Interior banned chokeholds in response to the growing protests against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd died of asphyxiation while in a police chokehold.

France has had its own history with chokehold deaths: in 2016 Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man, is believed to have died of asphyxiation while in police custody in a Parisian suburb. The French police have since faced accusations of brutality and racism.

Protests against police and counter-protests urging the Interior Ministry to reconsider its mandate spread across France last week. During these protests, the APN’s members responded to accusations of brutality: “We [the police] are stigmatized, and we need to denounce that. The police are not racist.”

The outcry against the chokehold technique has led to its ban in the US states of New York, Iowa and California, as well as several municipalities including Washington DC, Minneapolis and Denver. France is the first foreign country to ban chokeholds in the wake of the Floyd protests.

The measure’s unpopularity with French police has led the Ministry of the Interior to enter negotiations with the APN. A press release states that Christopher Castaner, Minister of the Interior, “denie[s] with the same vigor the accusations of racism launched against the police,” but has reiterated his condemnation for gendarmes who commit racist acts. The chokehold technique has been deemed dangerous and the Ministry wishes to work with the APN to find alternative methods of detaining suspects such as the taser. Furthermore, it emphasizes the effectiveness of deterrents such as public cameras rather than resorting to force.

The APN says that it will continue to defend the rights of police to stand against false accusations of racism and brutality.