A leader of the Gracie martial arts family has called restrictive new arrest rules for NYPD cops an “absolute disaster” — and warned they could lead to more deaths.

Rener Gracie, the grandson of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu founder Hélio Gracie, posted a series of videos raising real fears against the City Council’s anti-chokehold bill that also prohibits officers from pinning suspects by the back or chest, including the use of jiu jitsu "mounts." The law even criminalizes any inadvertent sitting or kneeling on the suspect's chest or back.

“When you remove the safest control method, you force them to use the less safe tools that they have,” said Gracie, 36, including “violent alternatives,” even firearms.

He said “with absolute certainty” that the new rules will have the “opposite effect in New York” on keeping safe any suspects — as well as cops — calling it “a very dangerous situation,” the New York Post reports.

It could leave officers “so fearful” of new laws they will “instead go to a Taser or prematurely to a firearm in order to control someone during an arrest,” said Gracie, a black belt for almost 20 years.

He attacked a “knee-jerk reaction” by a “roomful of suits at City Council” who have “ever been arrested or been in a real street fight.”

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The NYPD Police Reform bill I discussed in my recent video is actually much worse than I imagined! Not only does it criminalize the safest and most effective non-violent control tactics, the officer is personally liable for a “criminal act” even if contact with the diaphragm was unintentional and caused no injury to the subject. Somehow people don’t understand that by criminalizing non-violent control tactics they are encouraging violent alternatives. No matter who you are or where you live, do whatever it takes to prevent this particular policy from passing in your city. _ Police Chiefs, more than ever, you MUST keep excessive force allegations to an all-time low, and we can help. Link in bio.

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Jul 9, 2020 at 4:47pm PDT