A major hot-button political issue in the UK is how to crack down on knife attacks and knife violence, which have risen exponentially in recent years.
The trend in knife attacks rises mostly from gang violence, which is often perpetrated by black youths (under the age of 18) living in heavily urbanized areas.
In a heated debate on Good Morning Britain, Police Federation chair John Apter was arguing for the need for stronger sentencing and more prisons to hold prisoners when Alex Beresford, the weather man, who was technically not involved in that segment, interjected from across the room.
Alex Interrupts Stop and Search Debate to Talk About His Experience | Good Morning Britainwww.youtube.com
"Prison doesn't work, though!" Beresford said.
"Listen, I've grown up in some of these communities you guys are talking about, and prison—it's not a deterrent. Some of these boys, they don't fear prison. If you don't change the environment, you won't change anything. And that's the key thing, if you don't change the environment."
"This has been happening for years, okay?" he went on.
"Years. And it's not always in the media. But it won't change. It's going to take several things together, and yes, policing is one thing. But at the end of the day, if you don't change these boys' environment...All of you guys on that side, you benefitted from the environment that you've grown up in. You've benefitted from being in this work environment. I've benefitted from it. But these boys, not all of them get to benefit from the environment. If we don't show them something else, you won't change it."
The frustration of young black men was a major talking point of Beresford's:
"Listen, before I started this job, I was pulled over quite a lot and it used to frustrate me. You know, I got pulled up just because I had my hood up in the wintertime. And the officer said, 'Why are you driving with your hood up?' and I said, 'Because it's minus one outside. Why can't I have my hood up?'"
And after the debate, he tweeted a further thought about young black men to Twitter:
To which people are responding:
"We need to intervene much earlier down the line," he said in an interview following the GMB segment.
"Let's try and stop this before it gets too far down the road. I think what we see in the media is the end result. You don't see that person, that young boy, that young black boy as a child, you know? We just see the end result."
Watch that interview here:
Alex Beresford Explains Why Prison Won't Solve Knife Crime | Good Morning Britainyoutu.be
Beresford's interjection was very needed in this panel of white people debating black kids' rights.
The US could take a lesson.
