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We're one big family here including the officers that come everybody sits down they talk at
the end of the night they just socialize like friends they don't even look at him like a
police officer talking out in the streets they look at them as another friend or family
member this is a beautiful gym so congratulations are you making money no everything everybody
here volunteers what we make for money it goes right back into the gym to pay the bills
and to buy any other equipment we need what do you say in response to the concern that
kids that are boxing may get hurt they may take blows to their head everybody wears protective
gear when they're in the ring and aside from that they're just hitting the bags things
like that they don't really get hurt getting aggression out on the bags they leave all
their stress here thirty seconds thirty seconds there you go there you go tell us about your
affinity or your love of boxing when I got into it mm hm it was at a young age I was
from the projects and that fely good being in a gym by getting some aggression out having
a rough home you know and uh I didn't get too much into it I got into a little bit of
amateur not much and I hot out and uh years and years later I got into it through my daughter
again uh she seen a fight and she watched it and she told me she was interested in boxing
and I told her you serious she said yeah I'm serious and ever since then it's been twelve
years I've been in boxing so you trained your daughter in part yes when she was boxing I
was training my daughter some time she comes in here and I'll train her once in a while
just to stay a little sharp and you're here helping a lot of these kids uh develop boxing
skills as an alternative to crime or a way to just simply enjoy life yes they need a
place to go here in Lawrence uh there's a place that is rough and not to much recreation
enough for kids like eighteen years old and up after the Boys Club you're like seventeen
eighteen years old you can't go there no more right so you need something after that you
have to have a place to go and engage in a positive activity yes and this is a city that
it really needs it a lot I argued that about that many years now and the great things is
four gyms here now in Lawrence instead of uh none and uh it's a slow progress but it's
working you know the boxing to me keeps them not only off the streets it takes some stress
out of them it takes it gives them somewhere to go they start to learn to socialize and
get along with others you know it's a positive place I'm really appreciating watching in
the gym the past days is uh or weeks is watching them work with each other help each other
and if there's days that I'm not feeling to strong that day to work with them uh I could
see them just team up with each other and socialize and it's just very nice it's very
positive you know tell us a little bit about your years n the city of Lawrence police force
I've been a police officer in Lawrence for sixteen years currently I'm assigned as a
detective to a uh safe and secure youth initiative which is to work with uh at risk youth try
to steer them away from the negative things that could occur in their lives terrific now
do you have a relationship with the gym in which you come in and check on or box with
or simply check up on these kids lately it's been more of a visiting and checking up saying
hi things of that nature I was introduced to boxing through the Canal Street Gym do
you interact with the gym or what other officers are involved with this project uh one of the
other officers who's one of the trainers here is Radames Gonzales he's here quite often
he works a lot with the kids in the gym he works with our own police officers they do
private training sessions our officers are always welcomed here something the gym encourages
is interaction between the police and the youth in the city that do come and train here
kind of weed out any negative type relationship that have existed in the past between the
youth and the police and make it positive a lot of the youth that come here and box
interact with the police officers such as Radames Gonzales and they see whole other
side to us that we're not just out there arresting people or things of that nature we're trying
to build relationships with the community the city of Lawrence like any big city you
know has certainly difficulties in managing gangs or problems or aggressive children it's
an outlet it gives them something to do uh there's not a whole lot to do once they reach
a certain age and the streets not a great place to be all the time uh this place here
is the right turn for them you know there's a lot of wrong turns they could take but there's
a bunch of kids in here they're good kids they're here all the time it makes my job
easier it makes police officers job easier when you have rather then them hanging in
the street late yeah once they get out of here they're exhausted I bet I bet they go
home they take a shower and they're in bed they watch some TV and they're done you know
and that's a positive for them it's a positive for the city yeah and you now it's uh it's
something you have to support how could you not support something like that a place like
this has to be supported and how about the Martinez's I mean they do this for free they
volunteer it's it's incredible you don't hear much about that anymore you know they're working
hard they're reaching out to people they're trying to get people involved you know there's
all walks of life in here you have young men you have professionals that come here uh you
know lawyers doctors a lot of police officers come here they mainly come during the day
there's a small group but again Radames Gonzales one of the main trainers he trains our guys
it's good for us stress reliever so it works it works for everybody This excerpt is brought
to you by the Massachusetts School of Law