If they broke rules or disobeyed orders, unions or not, they are subject to disciplinary measures.
Did they do either of those things? Nope.
Well, if they were ordered not to do that, then, yes, they did.
IN any event, it was ******* tasteless.
A trial would have sorted a lot of this out.
The defence from the officers involved would have gone that there was a policy on chokeholds but it was not adhered to on mass by NYPD in general. So there individual actions should be put on trial. All they have to find is NYPD officers doing this without any disciplinary actions before them (look up youtube).
Then the fault would be put on NYPD in total. NYPD didn't enforce their own policies. Big fine in a civil case against NYPD, all go home and NYPD have a review of policies.
Simple review of arrest procedures, 5% of officers have 70% of resist arrests. Simple common sense look at why this is?