Hermosa Beach police train in martial arts to protect public, arrestees and themselves
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”2837″ display=”masonry” ngg_triggers_display=”always”]by Kevin Cody Shortly after Jon Sibbald joined the Hermosa Beach Police Department in 2002, the six-foot-tall, 200 pound officer found himself drawing on his martial arts training in situations where other officers used pepper spray, Tasers and batons. Sibbald trained in hapkido while at Redondo High, and subsequently trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He earned black belts in both disciplines. During a typically raucous Hermosa July 4th in 2003, Sibbald stopped a brawl on The Strand with an “outside leg” takedown of the instigator. A passerby’s video of the takedown went viral. A newscaster who aired the video wondered aloud why Sibbald didn’t just Mace the brawler (who was not injured in the fall). A second newscaster speculated police elsewhere might have shot the brawler. PGCT founder and chief instructor Sgt. Jon Sibbald. Photo by JP Cordero Police arrest videos became a television news staple following the Rodney King baton beating by four Los Angeles Police Officers a decade earlier. Locally, attorney Thomas Beck built a practice filing lawsuits alleging police brutality. In 2011, Beck won a…
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