This is not yet a fully-formed thought but it keeps coming up for me: Domestic violence experts warn that in abusive relationships, strangling / choking / restricting a victim& #39;s airway is the one act that best predicts murder down the line.

Choking someone isn& #39;t just a thing that happens. It& #39;s its own category of violence. The neck is a vulnerable place; we all instinctively protect ours. When a person grabs another by the neck, or presses their knee into someone& #39;s neck, that& #39;s not restraining them or fighting back.

People (usually men) who go for their partners& #39; necks are the most lethal abusers -- the most likely to eventually kill their partners. It& #39;s about immediate life-threatening dominance: I can end you. Too often, they eventually do. The parallels to police violence are clear.

There are a lot of ways to restrain a person, but digging your knee into their neck and cutting off their airway is a choice. It& #39;s a choice that in and of itself reflects a total disregard for human life, and indeed a level of intentional malice and lethality.