ANAHEIM : Youths Get Kick Out of Police Karate Program

Usually it’s a crime to kick or punch a law enforcement officer--but that isn’t the case on Tuesday afternoons in the Sycamore Junior High School gymnasium.

About 60 children gather there once a week, don white martial arts uniforms and learn karate from Anaheim Police Department officers.

Under a pilot program conducted by the recently formed Anaheim Police Athletic League, officers volunteer off-duty hours to train children from the Anna Drive neighborhood. The program is also supported by the Anaheim Union High School District, the Anna Drive Assn. and the United States Karate Organization.

Sgt. Joe Vargas, president of the Police Athletic League, said the goal is to develop respect and self-confidence among the children, discourage criminal activity and help create neighborhood friendships.

“We give them everything a gang gives them,” Vargas said, explaining that the children receive a sense of pride, acceptance and camaraderie from belonging to a martial arts team as opposed to a street gang.

The students, who range in age from 5 to 13, are not required to pay for their karate training or uniforms. But they are asked to help improve their central Anaheim neighborhood through community activities such as painting over graffiti.

Officer Judi Harmon, who is learning martial arts along with the children, said the program “is about cops and kids working together and breaking down some walls between the two.”

“We hope to make their bodies and minds strong,” Harmon said, “and discourage them from getting involved with gangs and drugs. I told one of the kids who was having a hard time, ‘We’re going to get strong together.’ ”

Serving as head instructor for the karate program since it began in March is Officer Chuck Knight, a black belt who has been with the Police Department for 13 years. Based on the success of the pilot effort, Knight said, the Police Athletic League may start recreational programs in other neighborhoods this summer.

“It’s a great bunch of kids,” Knight said of his martial arts students. “The first few times they came here they weren’t sure if they wanted to be here. Now I practically have to throw them out.”