KEN CLAVEAU

After watching carefully choreographed demonstrations of five-year old girls slinging grown men across the gym, and confronting Karate "experts" in real life, you have to come to several conclusions. Great way to get in shape? You bet. Teaches admirable principles that aren't usually followed? Yep. A good way to get your butt kicked if you try it on someone who really knows how to fight. Oh, yeah!

That is unless you are a real Karate master like Ken Claveau was.

Ken came to the NPD from Chicago. He was a fit-looking guy but his appearance was no clue to what a bad dude he could be. Ken was a devoted student of Karate. And a master. He could do things that you only saw Bruce Lee do in the movies.

Stand flat-footed, jump up and kick the ceiling? No problem. Break bricks with his hands? Sure. Deliver a knockout punch with such speed it couldn't even be seen? Yep. Several saw him do just that one night while arresting a combative turd at the Anchor. Or, to be factual, several didn't see him do that. They were looking right at him, but they didn't see a thing. One second the fool had bowed up at Claveau, the next he was in sleepy land at Ken's feet.

When the City decided to reconfigure and replace the old parking meters of 5th Ave South, Ken got permission to help on the project. The meters were clamped onto 3" steel pipes. His removal technique was to kick them off. That's what I said, kick them off. Said it was faster than using wrenches and all those other tools.

One night, while off duty, Claveau and his pal, Karate student, and fellow NPD cop, Ken Ferrell got into a altercation at the Rainbow Restaurant and Bar. When one of their antagonizers decided to beat a hasty retreat to his car, they went to work on said refuge. Although, the car later looked like it had been pounded with sledge hammers, only their feet and hands were used. Looking at the car, you were chilled to realize that a human body could do that to metal.

Ken worked for us a few years, then went on to another agency. He died from a heart attack before he reached middle age.

So, the moral of this story is be nice, stay outta fights. And if you get trapped into one, hope it's with one of those little girls in the Karate contests on TV. And not with a Ken Claveau.