Karate cops for Western Cape
2009-06-26 16:02
Cape Town - Western Cape police officers will soon be able to give criminals a swift karate chop.
So believes the province's community safety MEC Lennit Max, who on Friday announced a pilot project to train 200 police officers in "self-defence techniques".
He said in his budget vote speech that eight police were murdered in the line of duty in the province last year, and that the safety of police officers was "one of our highest priorities".
"For that reason I had discussions with Hennie Bosman, a well world renowned expert in karate, to train police officers in self-defence techniques," he said.
He had also spoken to the divisional police commissioner responsible for training, Gary Kruzer.
"It was decided... to train 200 police officers as a pilot project as instructors to train police officers in self-defence to use minimum force to place a suspect under arrest," he said.
"This is proof of a government who does not sit on its hands but take[s] the initiative to capacitate our police officers."
Martial arts for law enforcers has a fictional precedent in the 1991 movie Karate Cop, described variously as "martial law at its most lethal", and "Robocop meets Bruce Lee".
- SAPA