MINNESOTA banned the knee-on-neck restraint used by police to kill George Floyd today among a raft of police accountability measures.

The most substantial changes to the US state’s criminal justice system in years ban chokeholds and “warrior-style” training that instructs officers to see all encounters with the public as inherently dangerous.

The state senate approved the measures by 60 votes to seven in the early hours after it passed its house of representatives by 102 votes to 29.

The legislation also improves data collection related to “deadly force encounters” and creates a new state unit to investigate those cases. It increases funding for crisis-intervention training, creates an arbitration panel to handle police misconduct cases and establishes incentives for officers to live in the communities they police, the Star Tribune reported. 

The package is a victory for Black Lives Matter protesters who have rocked the United States and much of the Western world since police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd on May 25.

It follows Monday’s Strike for Black Lives, in which at least 20,000 workers walked out in 160 cities. Protests highlighted the plight of workers whose jobs in healthcare, fast food, transport and construction put them at risk.

The Rev William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, which helped organise the strike, said: “If we want to be concerned — and we should be — about police violence ... we have to also be concerned about the people who are dying and being put into lethal situations through economic exploitation all over the country.”

He emphasised the importance of demonstrating publicly for change. “Sadly, if they’re not in the streets, the political systems don’t move, because when you just send an email or a tweet, they ignore it,” he said.

Over 60 trade unions and social- and racial-justice organisations supported the Strike for Black Lives, which received international support, including from Britain’s Bakers, Food & Allied Workers’ Union, the McStrike campaign and War on Want. Solidarity rallies took place in Brazil and South Korea.

At a McDonald’s in Los Angeles, workers blocked the drive-through for eight minutes and 46 seconds to remember the length of time Officer Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck as he pleaded for his life. In San Francisco, 1,500 janitors walked out and marched on the city hall.

Uber and Lyft car-hailing company drivers formed a caravan in Los Angeles calling for health insurance and paid sick leave.

“We are front-line workers, we are risking our lives, but we’re doing it at a wage that doesn’t even match the risk,” said wheelchair agent and activist Glen Brown.