It's frightening how many knives are on the streets - Sunderland boxer and gym owner runs knife amnesty in return for self defence training - video Dailymotion

Sunderland Echo

Boxer and gym owner Troy Baker talks about his knife amnesty initiative.

Transcript

00:00mental health and stuff like that some people carrying a knife might be carrying a knife

00:04because in their head they build up a picture to why they have to carry that knife

00:09what's coming on team you shouldn't do it that's not which way it works there's reasons to why i

00:13can't go to social events because of anxiety and depression sometimes i can't it's crazy i can sit

00:18speak to you all day and go fight on friday okay then troy rats on in college today so

00:24why were you so keen to get involved in educating young people about the dangers of knife crime

00:28so basically i had a young lad in and with us training and doing well obviously he didn't

00:35mention anything about any past or anything like that and he started opening up about

00:39obviously what went on in the past basically talking about knife crime and jail and stuff

00:44like that and i didn't realize how prevalent is that a word yeah how like close it was to

00:51home and on the streets and how like people around the doors really were involved in knives

00:55obviously i'd never really seen it and i'd heard rumors of people carrying knives and whatnot but

00:59i've never seen anything in person to ever feel like that was a problem obviously you see online

01:05and more down south and stuff or manchester and things like that where there's like crime

01:10happening with knives and you think like oh i'm glad that's not here the problem is it is here

01:14we're just not aware of it so obviously off the bottom of that training session i'd put a put a

01:20post up when somebody had come forward and handed in a knife and i put a post up and that kind of

01:26basically blew up and went crazy on the back of that people have come forward contacted us told us about

01:32stories about them and it's absolutely frightening how many knives it is on the street and like i

01:37say they are around the doors and don't know if you can see in the video here but this one right

01:41here right next to us was from a 16 year old kid who was like literally on the doorstep

01:48and then he's carrying us around for self-defense and i'm thinking like

01:51jesus is crazy because it is happening around us and so the reason that i'm here for is not

01:57to judge people and say to them like you're carrying knife what you're doing is wrong so

02:00that's not the right way to approach it need to be open-minded and say like i understand the reasons

02:05to why you might be carrying a knife but you need to understand the reasons to what can go wrong and

02:09the reason why you shouldn't carry a knife and then help them and see into them like look if

02:14you are carrying come to me come and speak to us i'll try and help you as much as i can i'll take

02:18it from you i've got a direct link with the authorities now who come and pick it up and

02:22dispose of it in the correct way and by doing that i'll then even give you a free training

02:26session and try and help you to build confidence and self-defense and build relations with people

02:32who'll make you do bigger and better things going forward in life so it's not about like i say coming

02:36in here and talking down to people or being a teacher and trying to tell people like this is

02:40what you should do or what you shouldn't do it's about trying to just kind of give people that

02:45reach that's someone that can reach out to to be able to then go actually act and confidently speak

02:50to that person not be judged not be told about the rights and wrongs of it but to simply helped

02:55and that's what i'm aiming for and i know what you're doing you mentioned you're touching it

02:59there before you've got a sort of a program going on where people can come in hand in a knife

03:03it's part of a knife amnesty with northumbria police and then you give them a free training

03:07session yes all right yeah so basically anybody who comes in hands a knife over and i'll willingly

03:12train for free once a week every week for as long as they need it and that'll be based on everything

03:18so i'll train them for fitness i'll get them fitter and healthier and i'll train them in

03:22self-defense so hopefully they feel like going forward they wouldn't have to then carry a knife

03:26they can defend themselves if they needed to but i'll also introduce them and link them with people

03:31within the gym environment to build connections to maybe different friend groups if that makes

03:35sense to kind of open up what they can do and how they can spend the time because going forward

03:41as a gym we do lots of like fun activities and it's nice because every time it gets a bit bigger

03:46and a bit more diverse within regards to who comes in from the backgrounds and that's what

03:51it's about it's about having them opportunities for the people who might feel like they haven't

03:54got them at the moment in time because when they come along and join us they'll start making better

03:59choices hopefully anyway that's that's the aim okay then toby you just heard troy's talk there i

04:05mean it is knife crime something which does concern you as a young person uh yes it's definitely a big

04:10concern in today's society so i would say so yes is it something you've experienced yourself

04:15personally uh no i haven't but it's always inside the back of your mind you know that you know when

04:19you go for a night out people could be carrying a knife uh well not like like really there but

04:25it's a possibility yes and did you find her choice totally interesting what were his key messages

04:30yeah it was very impactful and it really gave an insight on to people who carry knives that

04:35they're not really the bad people that we see every day that some of them are just innocent

04:39people in bad situations is it good to know somebody does have a knife and wants me to get

04:45rid of it without you know being judged or getting a criminal record that they've got

04:48somewhere to go by giving it a try yes that's a really nice thing and a very resourceful thing

04:53for society so that is a legitimate reason for why and it's up to us all actually from ground

04:59level to see it to them that's not a good reason why but if you come and reach out we'll start

05:03training we'll get a little bit of exercise feel better mix with better social service and

05:07then we'll we'll stop it yeah

It's frightening how many knives are on the streets - Sunderland boxer and gym owner runs knife amnesty in return for self defence training

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