Бывший начальник полиции Сьюсан-Сити Рон Форсайт: как карате помогло ему стать эффективным офицером

Ron Forsythe, who worked for the Suisun City Police Department for 30 years, 16 as its chief, lived in Fairfield growing up and went to Fairfield High School, graduating with the Class of 1975. “My mom wouldn’t let me visit my friends who lived in Suisun because it was too rough. So it’s ironic that’s where I ended up being a police officer. Or maybe it’s not ironic. Maybe it’s because that’s where I saw I could make a difference.” As a teen, Forsythe’s career interests were journalism and law enforcement and he went to a career fair and met then publisher of the Daily Republic, Don Hancock. Hancock liked Forsythe’s enthusiasm and told him to drop by and maybe they could find a job for him. Forsythe was there the next day and was offered a job as a newsroom aide and soon was a reporter/photographer. In April of 1975, he was sent to snap photos of then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who was landing at Travis AFB, changing planes and flying to Taiwan. The president of Taiwan had died and the U.S. government was walking a diplomatic tightrope. They didn’t want to tick off the Chinese by sending the president of the U.S. because that would mean recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. They had already insulted the Taiwanese by first announcing that the secretary of Agriculture would be the U.S. representative at the funeral, before choosing the Veep as a compromise once that blew up. At Travis, Rockefeller wasn’t supposed to talk, but suddenly stopped to answer some questions from the local press. “There was just me and one other reporter there. He was from Vallejo and was very experienced, but he was so intimidated he froze and couldn’t say a word. I asked very direct questions about the Taiwan situation and Rockefeller didn’t take offense. He thought it was interesting that a kid my age had an interest in world events and gave me a tremendous interview.” When Forsythe got back to the Daily Republic, the managing editor was surprised he had not just a photo, but an exclusive interview. It was typed up and picked up by United Press International (UPI). Forsythe’s byline was in newspapers from New York to Chicago and internationally. His mom had a collection of them in a scrapbook. Forsythe started working with reporter Brian Hamlin on the police beat and became a regular salaried employee. But then the paper got a new managing editor who felt that Hamlin and Forsythe were too chummy with officers and demanded they be more adversarial which they balked at. They both left the Daily Republic, Hamlin to work for the Vacaville newspaper and Forsythe to become a dispatcher for the Suisun City Police Department. He subsequently went to the Police Academy and was hired as an officer at 20 years old. Back in high school, Forsythe had been the kind of kid who went to Boy Scouts events and science fairs and who was bullied. He needed more self-confidence to become a cop and since Bruce Lee and the TV show, “Kung Fu,” were popular, he gravitated to martial arts. Forsythe trained under legendary Fairfield Kajukenbo instructor Tony Ramos and soon was teaching classes at Ramos' dojo. When Forsythe started as a Suisun cop he was a brown belt and eventually earned his black belt. The martial arts skills he learned helped Forsythe to effectively and safely subdue suspects. Only one time did his skills result in injury. Forsythe responded to an 11-99 – an officer needs help – and discovered a colleague on his back and a drunken Suisunite whom the police all knew on top of him. They were tussling over the officer’s gun. Forsythe kicked the gun away, put the suspect in a wrist lock and ordered him into the police car repeatedly. Each time the suspect refused he wrenched the wrist lock tighter. Finally he inadvertently broke the man’s wrist. Soon after he was called to the front of the station where his boss was with the suspect wearing a cast. Forsythe was sure the man was there to file a complaint, which he felt was completely reasonable. But instead the man apologized, admitted he had gotten drunk and stupid and thanked him for just breaking his wrist and not shooting him as he had a legal right to. Soon Forsythe’s rep preceded him. “I went to back up an officer on a domestic violence call and the officer and the guy were screaming at each other. The guy kept turning his head and looking at me in between ranting and finally said ‘If I do anything to him you’re gonna kick my a**, aren’t you?’ And I said “Yes sir, that’s why I’m here.’ He said ‘Well, I guess I better not do anything’ and we all laughed. It diffused the situation. "I would not have had the assertiveness I needed to be a police officer before practicing martial arts and definitely not one in Suisun. Tony Ramos taught me self-confidence and command presence.” Fairfield freelance accidental local historian Tony Wade is the author of eight books. Reach Wade at [email protected].