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Baltimore mayor says public boxing matches may solve street violence

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young suggested public boxing matches as a way to relieve tensions in the city.

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s mayor believes he has a solution to solving some of the violence in the city: Public boxing matches.

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After eight shootings and 11 stabbing incidents in the city over the weekend, Mayor Jack Young said he is trying to find ways to ease tensions in the city.

"If they want to really settle them, we can have them down at the civic center, put a boxing ring up and let them go and box it out," Young told WBAL. "Those kinds of things, you know, and the best man wins and the beef should be over. Those are some of the things I'm thinking about."

Young and City States Attorney Marilyn Mosby attended a recent National Gun Violence Awareness Day event and left with several ideas.

"Gun violence has been plaguing this city for the last 10 years. The murder rate in this city and non-fatal shootings have increased," Young told WBAL. "I'm not happy with it and neither should the citizens of Baltimore," Young said.

"Frederick Douglas said it best. It's easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men, and so we have to focus on our babies before it's too late," Mosby told the television station.