Jon Stewart was ready to take on the death of Eric Garner on his show Thursday after previously saying he needed, “more fucking time” to deal with a grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who put Garner in a chokehold.
“In this case, there was no ambiguity,” Stewart said. “Even with clarity though, people continued to blame this death on anything but the injustices of a flawed system.”
Including New York Republican congressman Peter King, who suggested Garner’s death was partially due to him being overweight and asthmatic.
“Those are serious conditions but come on, the medical examiners report said that Garner died from compression of the neck and compression of the chest,” Stewart said. “That sounds more like death by choking than death by chocolate.”
Footage of King saying, “there’s not a hint there that anyone used any racial epithet,” was later shown on the broadcast. Stewart reacted, saying: “So the cops need to use the n-word for it to be racism? Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘a picture’s worth a thousand epithets?’”
Many have argued that Garner was placed in the chokehold because he was resisting arrest. Stewart argued that resisting arrest does not always lead to such a move however, using video evidence of Snooki’s arrest on an episode of ‘Jersey Shore,’ in which she tells cops to, “get the fuck off of me,” and claims, “I’m a fucking good person.”
“You’re telling me she was less a menace to society at that time?” Stewart said. “Now I understand that she’s straightened her life out and has shown us that she is and I quote, ‘a fucking good person.’ Come on people. Won’t anyone admit that this is symptomatic of a larger issue?”
Enter Rand Paul who reduced the death of Garner to being about laws against the sale of loose cigarettes.
Stewart’s response: “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Watch video from “The Daily Show” here.