Ro Malabanan is a BJJ black belt based in New York City and he just became the latest in a long line of martial artists who have managed to help the general public when a crime has been committed. Malabanan witnessed an assault take place where a construction worker was sucker-punched by another man and he immediately rushed over to the victim to make sure he was okay and ask if he needed help. Upon seeing that the victim was okay, Malabanan then decided to engage with the suspect as he was afraid that he would hurt someone else in the near future.
As previously mentioned, Malabanan is far from the first experienced BJJ practitioner to restrain a suspect and this is just one of many incidents that lend support to the notion that police officers could benefit from being trained in BJJ. It’s been one of the fastest growing movements for police reform in recent years, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down either. It’s for good reason too, as there are already plenty of examples of Jiu-Jitsu being the defining factor that has saved the life of an officer in the line of duty.
NBC New York originally reported the news that Ro Malabanan had taken down an assault suspect in New York City, and the news station managed to get an interview with the BJJ black belt where he explained his thought process during the altercation:
“I walked up to the guy that got hit, and checked to see if he was OK. He said he wasn’t okay … Immediately, my martial arts side kicks in and I’m like, let’s go stop this guy… Who knows what he’s capable of, this guy may hurt another person or worse… My jiu-jitsu training kicked in, and I immediately just jumped on his back, he tried to fling me off of him. I had what’s called the seatbelt position, which helped me to actually drag him down to the ground.”
