Category: Deadly Art of Survival

In 1973 at the age of 10, after seeing Bruce Lee’s “Enter The Dragon”, Sergeant Stephenson discovered his love of the martial arts. He proceeded to study Taekwondo under Instructor Blake Williet, self-defense under Instructor Robert Hanson, Ketsugen karate and Kung Fu under Instructor’s Roderick Chillious and Richard Griffin and Tang Soo Do under Instructor’s Ron Hill and Georgia-based United Karate Studio’s Fred & Linda Landrum. Sergeant Stephenson attended Freeport High School at which time they called Karate High and he would spar and train after school with his classmates at Northwest Park. He was also a member of Freeport High’s wrestling and gymnastics teams and would incorporate gymnastics in his katas before there were Extreme and Creative Sport karate divisions. Sergeant Stephenson achieved his Blackbelt in Tang Soo Do 1983 and was later ranked # 10 & # 17 in Point sparring in Region 11 of the Professional Karate League.

In 1984 Sergeant Stephenson became an Officer in the New York City Police and was later promoted to Detective and then Sergeant. In 1996 Sergeant Stephenson won the New York State Law Enforcement Olympics in Point Sparring. While working in the NYPD, Sergeant Stephenson used martial arts several times, including defending himself against a man attempting to steal his firearm and another time when he had to disarm an armed robber. Sergeant Stephenson was promoted to Detective and Sergeant and was awarded 26 commendations for various acts of police duty. One of those awards was for being a first responder at the World Trade Center during Sept 11th, 2001 attacks and helping to evacuate people from the burning towers. In 1999 Sergeant Stephenson along with his partner Detective Teddy Campbell (R.I.P) started Street Unity and Survival (S.U.S) Self Defense School. A African American-based self-defense school dedicated to using knowledge and unity to uplift the community. In 2004, after 20 years of honorable service, Sergeant Stephenson retired from the New York City Police Department. Today Sergeant Stephenson can still be found teaching and serving the community at his karate school in the Queens/ Long Island, N.Y. area.

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It started in Miami with a glass storefront window and a man wearing “white pajamas.” Reeling from the recent death of his mother, the future Shihan Roberto Hernandez-Velez, then aged 10, stumbled upon a school of martial arts and was taken by what he saw. “A few weeks after my mother’s passing, I was walking back and forth to school and I saw this big, huge storefront with a glass window on it and then I saw like a Buddha on the wall and I kind of wondered what all of that was about,” says Hernandez. “All of a sudden, I see this guy coming to the curtains with the white pajamas; back then I didn’t know what it was, and a black belt holding on to it. And I just got curious as to why this guy was coming out in pajamas.” In learning the significance behind the man in the window, young Hernandez found a pathway out of the depths of despair and a source of constant and continuing comfort. On August 23, 1961, Roberto Hernandez-Velez was born in Miami, Florida. His father abandoned the family when Hernandez was three-years-old and he grew very close to his mother. When she passed away, he was devastated; both of his parents were gone. It was in this context of grieving, burdened by the sense of loss and searching for answers that Hernandez encountered the school storefront. At the time, he was also watching episodes of The Green Hornet starring Bruce Lee. The ideas began to align. “I was wondering why this little guy, this small guy, was beating up on everybody. And that kind of relates to when I saw this guy in the glass window and storefront, that it was martial arts.”

For a young man questioning why his mother died, the arts offered solace. “I needed some sort of comfort, some guidance and peace in my heart to understand why my mother passed away and I needed to get an outlet for how I really started to feel within myself,” says Hernandez. “Losing my father and then my mother passing away, not realizing that my whole life was going to change then, I chose to see this art as a way of life for me.” Soon after, with his father a no-show, his aunt adopted his family and took him to Puerto Rico, but not before he was able to use the money he made from selling sodas to obtain his own pair of “white pajamas.” When he left for Puerto Rico, he took his new Keikogi (uniform) along with him. Hernandez continued his pursuit of the arts by watching movies and practicing what he saw. In 1975, the family moved back to Miami. Hernandez would often come home late in the evenings because he had spent his time after-school peering in the windows of martial arts schools, fueling his passion. The following year, he began training in Chinese Goju, studying in Miami with Ruben Font, a student of the legendary Gogen “The Cat” Yamaguchi.

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