The parents of murdered Sunderland teenager Connor Brown joined Northumbria Police Commissioner Kim McGuinness at the launch of the Knives Impact Everyone Campaign at Newcastle's Stagecoach Bus Depot
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00:00 Hello, I'm Kevin Clark and we're here at Stagecordia's depot in Newcastle for the launch of a new
00:04 advertising campaign highlighting the threat of knife crime.
00:07 We're here with the parents of Connor Brown, the Sunderland teenager who died after he
00:10 was stabbed in the city centre, and Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness for
00:14 the launch of the campaign which will see adverts on buses across the town and way.
00:18 What is it that brings you here today?
00:19 Our son.
00:20 Connor is the reason we do what we do.
00:21 He's our goal, he's our driving force behind everything that we do.
00:22 And it's our love for him.
00:23 And also the fact that we just don't want any more.
00:30 We don't want any more victims of knife crime.
00:36 It isn't just about the victim, it is about everyone.
00:40 And they really need to think about that, they really need to kind of look at themselves
00:45 and what they want out of life.
00:47 Is this the life that they want?
00:50 Because I don't think it will be.
00:51 So they need to think about themselves.
00:53 It's not just your family that's been devastated by the events of that night?
00:57 No.
00:58 So many.
00:59 So many.
01:00 You tell them on television on a daily basis now, and down the country it's another one,
01:04 and another one, and another one, and you just...
01:08 Really we should just curl up and cry, but we're going to carry on.
01:13 We're going to still continue with our message, because as we say many, many times before,
01:19 even if we only say one, we've accomplished something.
01:23 Nothing's ever going to bring Connor back obviously, but does supporting Spanish bring
01:26 you some comfort?
01:28 It does.
01:30 Just working with other families, working with Police Crime Commissioner Kim Guinness
01:34 and the Violence Reduction Unit, just knowing that we are having that impact, it really
01:40 does give us that motivation to keep going.
01:44 And we do see some positive stories as well.
01:47 We see some positive outcomes.
01:49 It isn't all about bad news.
01:51 There is more good people than there is bad people, and we just need to keep driving that
01:57 message across.
01:58 Knives Impact Everyone, that's the name of the campaign that we're launching here today,
02:02 and you can see on the back of the bus here.
02:04 And it's about telling the stories about how in the aftermath of a knife crime, the impact
02:09 is felt by the family of the victim, by the friendship groups, by the family of the perpetrator.
02:14 And we're telling that story in a way that young people have told us they need to see
02:18 it in the places where they spend their time.
02:20 So we're specifically targeting the kind of people who are most likely to be carrying
02:23 a weapon?
02:24 We're specifically targeting young people with the message that the choice to pick up
02:28 a knife or not can really mean the difference between life and death, and the impact that
02:34 that decision has on everyone.
02:36 And we've got some people here today whose lives have been impacted by knife violence.
02:39 How important is it to you to have their support?
02:41 Well I've worked for a long time now with Samantha's Legacy and with the Connor Brown
02:46 Trust and the work that they do is utterly selfless.
02:48 They go into schools, into youth clubs, into anywhere really that will listen to tell the
02:54 stories of the impact that losing a loved one to knife crime has had on them.
02:59 And that is such a vital message to get across to young people and I'm so incredibly grateful
03:03 to them.
03:04 But also, having these campaigns is so important to these families because they never want
03:09 to see anybody go through what they've been through ever again.
03:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]