there are two sides to police brutality. the first side would argue the cop did what needed to be done to save his life and do his job, and the second side would consider the policeman a monster who went to measures far beyond what was necessary, to a reckless degree.

this one falls into the second one imo. there's absolutely zero reason why you would ever have to put somebody in a choke hold as a cop--that's why handcuffs and other non-harmful restraining methods exist. if there was a weapon present or any suspicion of a weapon being present, then i would relinquish my contempt for this particular cop. however, if somebody puts a bag of drugs in their mouth to try and evade arrest, you don't fucking choke them which may or may not have had anything to do with the man's death.

to add contrast, if for example the man in the car started reaching for something in the glove box suspiciously, i wouldn't blame the cop for rocking the dude in the face.

the point is, if nobody is in imminent danger of being injured, there is zero reason to use potentially life-threatening levels of force. getting a bag of meth from a guy's mouth so you can meet your arrest quota hardly qualifies as justification for possibly contributing to his death.