A person doesn’t need to have gone to medical school to understand the difference between influencing blood flow vs. oxygen flow with pressure to the throat. But there are other ways to learn this, and practicing jiu-jitsu is one of them.
Police officers in the U.S. are engaging in these maneuvers and not only have they not gone to medical school, they aren’t being trained in jiu-jitsu, either. Utilizing dangerous submissions is always risky for a street fighter, but it’s far more fatal if the combatants don’t understand what they are doing as they execute the tactics. Thus, both officers and communities they serve would be better equipped if police training included a basic level of martial arts-based competence.
It’s not a bad idea. Teaching cops Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) won’t prevent racist assholes from being racist assholes. But it might actually save many lives and can be a great tool that prevents cops from pulling a gun in the first place – combined with additional de-escalation and thorough psychological training.
First, having a basic understanding of BJJ will allow cops to de-escalate many situations without the need to pull a gun in the first place.
Having a basic understanding of BJJ and therefore how to control the other person will allow cops to keep a cool head (and refrain from using a gun), because they can be confident that – should the situation escalate – they will be able to handle it with martial arts. Especially if their partner participated in BJJ training as well.
Positive side effect: BJJ doesn’t require any punches or kicks, so there is less of a chance of hurting the opponent unnecessarily.
Second, once you know how to apply a choke properly, there will be no more fatal chokes applied “by mistake”. We choke each other continuously during our training sessions at Gracie Barra Rome and nobody dies.