Look Elsewhere For Youth Crime Solution, Says Darren Adam

1 August 2018, 06:42 | Updated: 3 August 2018, 06:29

Darren Adam says it's time for authorities across England and Wales to look at how other parts of the world have tackled gang violence and copy them.

The London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour's Shadow Youth Affairs Minister Cat Smith have announced that if their party get into power, it will ring fence cash for community centres and other youth services.

With some 87 people having been killed in London alone this year, Darren Adam says "everything is worth trying at this point", highlighting the different ways of tackling violent crime which have been tried in the Los Angeles district of Compton, in New York, in Boston and in Glasgow.

He added that what Mr Khan and Ms Smith have outlined is "pretty vague, pretty wonkish, pretty technocratic [and] I don't really know what it means, but it's worth a try, isn't it?"

Darren rounded off his passionate plea by highlighting the impact that mentoring by reformed former gang members can have, because they "have credibility and are able to talk to young people in a way that I couldn't do".