A local martial arts expert and therapist is hosting a community awareness and self-defense seminar Saturday at his Bath gym.

Edward Hall is a former member of the United States Martial Arts team and won gold at the World Games in 2010. He is also a therapist, and has worked closely with local law enforcement agencies on reading and interpreting behavior and body language and defensive tactics.

Violent crime, theft, property crimes and substance abuse are becoming more frequent, Hall said, and “the need for safety and awareness is at an all time high.”

The seminar will be held at Ship City Fitness at 111 Centre St. in Bath on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. and is open to adults as well as teens ages 15 and up. Rather than charging a fee for the event, he asks people bring food donations for the local food bank.

Hall said representatives from Bath, Brunswick and Phippsburg police departments will speak about crime statistics.

Hall will teach self-defense techniques, which attendees will get to practice.

Two incidents spurred him to host the seminar. One was a stabbing last year in a crowded Saco grocery store that Hall said no one saw coming.

The second was when someone broke into two vehicles in the parking lot of his gym right next to an Amato’s during the lunchtime rush. Either no one saw the crime, didn’t realize they were witnessing a crime, or chose to do nothing about it, he said.

“I really feel the need to step up and do something to empower the community and take the community back,” he said.

Hall teaches how to spot suspicious behavior and verbal cues, something he said used to be taught by police in public schools.

“Our culture has changed so much to where we all want to be so accepting and we all want to be so tolerant, so when we see something out of place we’ve been conditioned to look away or look down,” he said. “It does not pay not to be observant. It can be very costly.”

For example, he said, it’s OK to stare at someone in a bank if they’re wearing a hoodie during the summer.

“To look at someone is not to be intolerant,” Hall said. “To look at someone to assess the situation is vitally imperative.”

Self-defense tactics he’ll share Saturday are similar to what he teaches local law enforcement, including controlling distance and a person’s ability to cause harm. Hall said these are modern self-defense techniques utilizing the principle that self-defense should be very simple and effective.

“It’s designed to help you get out of the area, period,” he said. “We practice simple things like yelling and drawing attention. I say, ‘if you can’t do it in a safe environment, how do you do it when your vocal chords tighten, your heart is racing, it’s dark and you’re scared?’”

He also stressed the techniques he teaches are not based on gender or strength and are skills that can be learned by anyone in a very short amount of time.

Hall encourages people to wear regular everyday clothes to the event. You won’t leave the workshop as the next Chuck Norris, but empowered with your new information and self-defense techniques, “you’ll feel like it,” he said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com