Man on Question Time says that knife crime culprits are a 'cancer' and should be 'exterminated'

An audience member on BBC Question Time shocked viewers on Thursday evening by suggesting that perpetrators of knife crime should be "exterminated".

In a discussion about knife crime on the panel show, which was being held in Dulwich, South London, the man began by stating that serious crimes, like stabbings, should be more severely punished.

His initial take on the subject gained a small smattering of applause. He said:

I think it is really disappointing that we are having another hand-ringing debate without a single mention of the concept of punishment. 

I know I'm probably being very old-fashioned but punishment does actually work. Even in Glasgow, it worked. 

In Glasgow, they tripled the average sentence for going around with a knife from four months to 13 months.

Imagine how quickly we could turn things around if instead of thirteen months it was fifteen years? 

This prompted a strong level of support from members of the audience, but the man managed to undo all of that as he continued his speech.

He added that those that have stabbed someone else are a "cancer" and that they should be "exterminated."

Don't forget it is a particular breed of human being who can repeatedly put a knife into another person and those people should be dealt with like the cancer they are and they should be exterminated.

Rather than applause, the man's statement was greeted with a stunned silence and a few gasps of "wow!" with others asking "what breed is that?"

Although the panel did respond to his comments, they didn't address the call for "extermination".

This was picked up on Twitter, though where people were appalled comparing the statement to fascism and asking why education wasn't a suitable way of dealing with the crime.

Although it's probably inappropriate for a statement with such serious implications, people did start to compare him to the Daleks from Doctor Who.

His comments about Glasgow were also called out.

HT Mirror

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