Karate helps former top cop cope with stress

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Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik visits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston for a karate education session.

This article was originally published on 8/3/2006

Talk about stress management.

Let’s say you’ve finished running the police department of New York City. President Bush now wants you to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Oops, turns out you haven’t paid taxes after hiring a nanny; she’s an illegal immigrant. So you withdraw from consideration.

But that annoying press is still digging. A district attorney is launching a bribery investigation against you and a business with alleged mob ties.

Fast forward to June 30, 2006. You plead guilty to accepting $165,000 in renovations on your apartment from a construction firm that was doing business with the city.

How do you deal with the stress?

Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner, turned to karate.

“There’s no greater inspiration in my life than martial art, ” Kerik said. “It got me on a right track.”

Last weekend, Kerik was in Atlanta to enjoy a karate extravaganza. The annual Battle of Atlanta —- organized by Kerik’s Atlanta friend Joe Corley —- gathered 2,500 martial artists, many of them young adults and teenagers.

On Friday, Kerik stopped by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston in DeKalb County. He was joined by a posse of karate masters for a private show before a small, special crowd —- about 10 sick children, including one waiting for a new liver, one in a neck brace and one with Castleman’s disease.

“If you think about getting better, ” Kerik told the children, “you get better.”

The karate demonstrators —- four men and a woman in black and red uniforms —- kicked, flipped and twirled a long spear [without the sharp part], screaming “Ha!” and Ya!” The kids clapped.

After catching their breath, the athletes signed autographs. Kerik, dressed in khakis and a navy blazer with an American flag pin, did not perform. That day, he wasn’t the star —- or the target.

“You have good times and you have bad times, ” he said, reflecting on the highs and lows of his life. “You have a little bit of both. You run with it.”

Karate has long been a passion for Kerik. He earned a fifth-degree black belt as a teen. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound father of four still lifts dumbbells and pummels a heavy punching bag. In 2002, the Battle of Atlanta inducted him into the Centurion Club, an honor reserved for martial arts notables such as Chuck Norris.

Was there a time recently when Kerik would have liked to use some of his karate moves, perhaps on some members of the press?

“To put it mildly, ” he quipped, laughing.

Before his stumble from grace, Kerik’s story had been an inspiration.

The Paterson, N.J., native was the son of a murdered prostitute, according to his autobiography and New York Times best-seller, “The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice.”

He rose from poverty to lead New York’s police department —- including during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

“Regardless of skeptics and minor criticism, New York City was prepared, ” he said. “We had practiced and we had planned just about everything under the sun. We didn’t expect those two buildings [at the World Trade Center], but everybody knew how to respond.”

Kerik is now a private consultant on security issues, lately in the Middle East, notably in Jordan.

He still thinks about the federal homeland security job that slipped through.

“I am not as happy as my wife is that I didn’t take the job, ” he said. “My wife is extremely happy.”

Kerik added, “It was an honor to be nominated, one of the greatest honors in my life.”

What about his own actions leading to the misdemeanor charge he pleaded guilty to in June that tarnished his reputation?

“I’m sorry some things happen when they do, ” he said. “You know, when people make a judgment, they have to look at a 30-year career of public service.”

He added, “Sometimes, people make a mistake.”