what bothers me isn't the choke hold, its the man telling them he can't breathe - like 9 times?
Exactly. That's the main thing here. Someone you're on top of says he can't breathe, the first thing a reasonable person does (who doesn't have malevolent intentions) is get off and see if he's for real, and if so, get him medical attention. You don't stay on top of him. Big deal if it turns out he was faking. If he was faking, and starts to try to fight again, you get back on him and get the cuffs on. You can't just assume that an arrestee is faking if he's saying he can't breathe, no matter how many times you think you've been faked out that way in the past.
