- (man) Look around. Who ill-advised you?
Who told you wrong?
- I feel like people almost never say anything.
Like, it's cool to see people actually step in.
♪ (punk rock music) ♪
(scuffling)
(heated arguing) - Mm, it's a fight.
- Why are they fighting?
- Oh, I've seen this.
I saw this on Twitter.
- Oh, I've seen this video.
That guy trying to break up the fight.
(onlookers jeering)
- (man) Y'all fools. Everybody here, you all fools.
Oh, y'all, y'all the real cowards. Record that, too.
- Awesome.
- (man) Everybody on a phone, record that.
- That's a good point.
Everyone just sees something and they don't do anything.
They're just like, oh, got to get this on film.
- (man) Everybody recording on the phone, real coward.
- He's, like, preaching, saying not to fight.
- (man) Look around. Who ill-advised you?
Who told you wrong?
- I feel like people almost never say anything,
so it's cool to see people actually step in.
- (man) [Inaudible] all of y'all, yo, because you're almost me.
- Wow, he's preaching the word right now.
- (man) [Inaudible] all y'all yo, because you're almost me.
All of y'all, yo.
Y'all almost men. You ain't kids no more.
Y'all girls? You little girls no more.
Y'all [inaudible], yo. Y'all men, yo.
- He's like a real homie, man, talking to them like that.
- You can tell he went through some stuff
and now he's trying to tell them don't do it.
You're gon' go through the same thing I did or even worse.
- (man) You got parents, yo.
Don't make your parents look like this, yo.
Word up.
Don't make your parents look like this, yo.
It's important, yo.
Don't make your mom and dad look like this, yo.
- Hey, that's the truth though.
Damn.
- (man) Hey, yo, you-- I know where you from.
I know where you from, humble beginnings.
Your mom and dad worked hard to get where they at, yo.
- Word.
- (man) They worked hard to get where they at, yo.
Tellin' y'all, yo.
Little bro, you dad doing life.
You think it's a game? - Look at that.
- (man) Ain't no game out here. - It's the truth, homie.
Damn.
- (man) I ain't leaving, bro.
Y'all don't shake hands, bro, I'm not leaving, bro.
I'm not leaving, bro.
Shake hands. - Yeah, just shake his hand.
- (man) Shake hands, bro.
This time in good faith. Put your hand back out, bro.
He gonna shake it this time, I promise.
Put your hand back out, bro. You gonna shake--
- Hey! - (man) Y'all be good, bro.
- That is so awesome!
That guy is awesome.
- He didn't just call out the people fighting.
He called out the people recording, the people watching.
- There's so many people that would just walk past this
like this or on their phones, but he wanted to make a difference
in these guys' day, and I think that's cool.
- (FBE) So the man who broke up that fight was later honored for his actions
by the city counsel in Atlantic City, where this happened.
- Oh wow.
- That's so cool.
- (man) I would like to first and foremost...
give God all of the praise and all of the recognition.
- I'm glad that he does get recognition from this, from the city.
- (man) And I would like to thank my mom.
(camera shutters clicking)
- Aw, he's about to cry.
- (man) Yeah. (camera shutters clicking)
- (touched) Oh.
- That's sweet.
- (man) When I was young...
we grew up in the projects.
- Oh man.
- You can really tell he really went through it, bro.
- (man) ... and I would get a punishment. She would make me read books.
I'm crying because, you know...
this whole situation deeply saddens me.
- He's so well-spoken. Like, I love it.
- (man) The fact that it's unbelievable.
This should be very believable. - (sighing)
This makes me just sad.
- (man) These young men, come here.
(camera shutters clicking)
- (man) It's your turn.
- Oh, did they bring the boys that were fighting?
- (man) Uh, these young men--
- And they're standing next to each other peacefully.
- That's so cool that he brought them.
That's an experience they're not going to forget.
- (man) Not only did they decide not to fight, they decided to shake hands
and to spread unity. (camera shutters clicking)
- (man) These are teenagers.
There are adults in our community who have a problem with this issue.
- Wow.
- (man) There are adults in our community who have a problem with this issue.
- Yeah, that's true. Damn.
- (man) Tonight, I only not want to thank my mom,
I going to thank the people who raised these them as well
because they've raised them to be young men of reason,
which seems to be a very, very rare trait in our today's youth.
- It's heavy.
- There needs to be more of that.
It needs to be shown more.
No matter the circumstances, someone just needs to say something
because it really can just be solved with words.
- I kind of come in a similar position as that guy,
where you grow up in a place where you got fights
and you got shootings going on,
and it's just like you become so numb to it, you know?
And then, like, you know, he brought humanity back,
and this is good.
- It's something that the world needs more of.
We don't have, like, too many adults now that are willing
to take the step and kind of go out of their way
and help people, especially the younger generation.
- (FBE) So that was a video that originally went viral
of someone breaking up a fight between two teenagers,
so how do you feel about this man and what he did?
- He was very brave for doing that.
- He's very brave.
And I think he-- it was good for the city to award him
and I think he needs more attention.
- Someone like this is an important person.
It's never going to stop unless someone stands up for something.
- He obviously went in with the intention, like, this is wrong,
like, he was raised that way, and I feel like
that's not our society today.
- Most people though just kind of egg them on,
but this guy did the right thing and he helped everyone
by breaking up the fight.
- (FBE) So one of the things that the man pointed out in the video
is how is it inappropriate for their friends to be filming the incident.
Do you find that part of today's society is pulling out your phones
to film rather than take action? - Yeah, sadly.
It happens all the time.
- Oh, absolutely.
Myself included.
If something happens, first thing we do is pull out our phone,
open Snapchat.
- The reason why you do half the stupid things you do
is because your friends are there to egg you on.
You know, you want to go on social media and it's like, oh, I'm the big shot.
You know, I could do this. I could do that.
And just cameras add that element that, you know, shouldn't be there.
- Of course, bruh, but I mean, they're teenagers.
It's not like all of a sudden the rest become wise
and know that this isn't good.
They're like, oh, this is dope.
This is going to make me get more likes on my Insta
and it's going to make me get followers.
- People don't step in.
They'd rather be like, "How many retweets can I get
for filming this?"
Instead of going out and trying to call 911 and helping it out
or telling people to call it off.
People will film it because they want to go viral.
- That's a lot of the times, but I feel like, also,
back 30, 40 years ago, people would still stand and watch.
That's still that mob mentality of that they want to be entertained
by someone else's pain or anger.
But the phones don't help anything, where they think,
"Oh, I can get views from this."
- (FBE) So in those types of situations,
why do you think that arguments like this, especially with youth,
tend to end up into violence?
- It's... it's an ego thing.
They get heated about something and then they're like,
"I need to solve it somehow," and they don't know how.
- I know a lot of people, including myself,
has been taught if someone hits you, you hit them back.
It's instinct.
That's the way a lot of people were taught.
- At this stage in your life, you're kind of more prone
to quick decisions, and so it's harder to think things clearly,
especially when there's a lot of emotion involved.
- It all comes down to the people you surround yourself with.
- Your friends are going to be there to fuel that fire.
It's just the influence of your friends that kind of gets you at the end
and influence your decisions.
- Violence happens when people are incapable of listening.
It's when words stop working, they turn to violence.
- (FBE) So despite getting called a hero for breaking up this fight,
Miller has expressed disappointment that this is even news.
Like he said in his speech, this should be a norm
and this should be regular.
So why do you think that actions like his aren't seen more often?
- I mean, it can be kind of scary.
Two guys are angry and ready to go at it.
Like, you don't want to throw yourself in potential harm's way
in the middle of the two.
- It's scary.
Like, I hate to say this.
I witness fights and I've never stepped in.
I've even filmed it myself.
There should be speakers.
Having people come in and talk about that, and just normalizing,
you know, intervention, I guess in a sense,
to the point where maybe friends will start intervening
when they see stuff like that, or random strangers will intervene.
- It's bullshit because our society just [bleep] claps
when people start fighting.
When these kids fight, they're at their school,
and there's just a bunch of other dumb, stupid kids around them.
Who is there to [bleep] stop them?
- Not too many people see these kinds of situations nowadays
so it's like, when you do, you're kind of stuck in shock.
You're like, oh my god, is this really happening?
You know what I mean?
So I feel like people that, you know, do grow up in a rougher environment
and do see this every day, you know, are used to it
and are sick of it, and I think that's what the whole world
needs to grab from these kinds of situations,
is that this is-- it happens anywhere.
You need to stop it when it happens.
- It's so easy to resort to violence as a method
for establishing that you're correct.
It's easier to just hit someone and be like, "I'm correct
because I punched you in the face."
We're very much so divided into countries, into cultures,
into subgroups, into clubs, into demographics.
We're all just people and we can be proud of who we are
and what categories we're in, but we can also be proud
of everybody else and who they are because, at the end of the day,
we're all in the same largest group of just people.
We're all just humans.
(silence)