Peace on the Streets: A Sensei's Mission

by Michelle Stockman (as published in Tiempo)

It’s a typical Saturday at the dojo. Sensei Richard

Garcia paces across a broad blue mat, his arms

crossed, his wide brown eyes hooded in

contemplation.
Pairs of teenage students practice a jiu-jitsu hold.

Behind them, a cross-legged neon buddha sign hangs

in

the windows, its glow bleached out in the streaming

sunlight. Traffic noise drifts up from East

Harlem’s

3rd Avenue, three stories below.

“Come on guys, street attitude!” Garcia chides.

“It’s

not the technique that matters, it’s the attitude.

Without that killer instinct, all your training goes

down the drain.”

Garcia asks for a volunteer. With a quick elbow

jab,

knee to the belly, and heel strike to the shin, he

drops his opponent to the mat.

“It’s like watching a ‘Superman’ cartoon,” says

Matthew Melendez, 17, his shorn brown hair styled

much

like Garcia’s. “You want to be like him.”

In a Manhattan neighborhood where children and

teenagers struggle with various menaces to their

safety – and control of their own behavior – they

find

a haven of empowerment at the Ultimate Karate USA

studio. Leading with compassionate discipline,

29-year-old Garcia serves as a role model to many

kids

without a male authority figure at home.

“When I came here that wasn’t why I did this, I did

it

to teach martial arts,” Garcia said. “So I guess

it’s

just sort of been, I guess an evolution since I’ve

been here.”

Physically, Garcia blends in with his protégés.

When

he’s not wearing his black gi (karate uniform) he

sports jeans and baggy sweatshirts, sometimes with a

brown Von Dutch cap set askew over his eyes.

Off the mat, Garcia can hold his own. If anyone

tries

to jump him, he can pull from a vast martial arts

tool

belt to defend himself: karate, tae kwon do,

Brazilian

jiu-jitsu, boxing, Kyokushin karate, Jeet Kune Do,

Navy S.E.A.L. hand-to-hand combat, and 52 Block, a

prison-based martial arts form.

As a kid in the South Bronx Castle Hill housing

projects, Garcia said he fought all the time, “over

little things.” Though he never joined a gang, he

was heavily recruited by the Nietas and the Bloods.

He credits the martial arts training he’s followed

since he was 7 years old for keeping him off the

streets.

Garcia eventually went on to compete professionally.

In 2002, he ranked fourth internationally in the

United States Karate Alliance as a super lightweight

sports karate fighter.

Though youth violence has decreased overall in the

US

since Garcia was a teenager, his students are still

at

a vulnerable age. According to the latest National

Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the

Department

of Justice, teenagers between 12-17 are twice as

likely to be victims of non-fatal crimes as adults.

For ages 12-14, ten percent of those crimes happen

at

school.

The NYPD does not release juvenile crime data for

specific neighborhoods, but parents said

youth-on-youth violence is a problem in East Harlem.

Lliana Villegas, 31, a single mother who enrolled

her

son at the dojo said, “There are gangs everywhere in

our neighborhood. Certain times of the year when

there are gang initiations you don’t want [the kids]

out. A way to get into gangs is to jump someone and

randomly beat up somebody.”

Villegas, also a middle school teacher in East

Harlem,

added, “I think it happens more than we see. So

much

goes unreported.”

All sorts of problems come to Garcia through the

dojo

doors. Kids who need help with their homework.

Kids

with attention deficit disorder. Kids with asthma.

Kids with sick parents. Pregnant teenagers. Single

mothers who seek his help to discipline their kids.

Garcia holds a special place of respect with his

students, who know they have to answer to him for

bad

grades or misbehavior at home. But Garcia doesn’t

run

a one-man-show. . Business partner, Stan Koehler,

64,

mentors and teaches anger management skills to

teenagers. His mother, Sonja Melendez, 47, helps

find

tutors for faltering students.

On a tour of the dojo, Garcia talks rapidly as he

displays the main studio, the meditation room and a

back room, featuring a 7-foot tall octagonal

cagefighting arena. He’s proud of the place. He and

Koehler opened the dojo four years ago after they

left

IT positions at the New York City foster care agency

to focus on martial arts training.

Outside of teaching classes, they spend a large

portion of their time conducting what they

informally

call an “adopt-a-thug” program: reaching out to

young

people in the neighborhood with violent streaks and

using martial arts training and meditation

techniques

to help them control their behavior.

“We can take the toughest street thug,” said Koehler

“and help them manage their anger. We help them

become aware that they are responsible for what they

feel and what they do.”

Garcia and Koehler said their students can be

“stupid

teenagers” sometimes and still get in trouble with

the

law.

“Probation officers are common within the

‘adopt-a-thug,’ Garcia said. “Late night visits to

the

local precinct are common. It’s not uncommon for

them

to get into fights.”

Kris Acevedo, 18, got into a street fight at the bus

stop on 106th and Third Avenue six months after he

began training at the dojo. Police arrested

Acevedo.

He is now on probation.

Acevado, who didn’t grow up with a father at home,

trains at the dojo for free in exchange for his help

in teaching younger children and keeping up his

grades

at a local college.

He said through continued work with Garcia and

Koehler, he feels confident he would approach a

confrontational situation differently the next time.

“What I learned to do better is walk away,” he

said.

“It’s always a work in progress. The next time I’ll

relax, smile and walk away.”