Following the Thursday decision by a grand jury in Kentucky that no charges would be brought against the three Louisville police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, Trevor Noah demanded to know why those officers were not held accountable.
“Why doesn’t America treat the police as responsible for their own actions?” Noah asked on Friday’s episode of “The Daily Show. “They’re police, they’re not bears. If they were bears, then you could say, ‘Oh, Black people, you shouldn’t be hanging around the honey, you’re going to get hurt.’ But they’re not, they’re human beings. They’re human beings who should be held accountable for what they do.”
Only one Louisville police officer, Brett Hankison, was indicted in relation to the incident, and that was on the charges of shooting into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment. The response to this decision has led to backlash and protests from people who have been calling for these officers to be charged since Taylor was shot and killed by the police who entered her home to execute a search warrant in March.
“As I watched what unfold yesterday, whether it was in the streets of Kentucky or between people interacting online, I found myself asking one question, one question that couldn’t get unstuck from my mind: Who is winning in this whole thing?” Noah said.
He continued: “And I’m not talking about who this helps in the election, take Donald Trump and Joe Biden out of this, because I don’t think that this is an issue that will be solved by just an election. I’m talking about on the ground, the lives of people, who is winning? Because to me, it looks like nobody is winning.”
“Breonna Taylor’s family isn’t winning,” Noah said. “They lost a love one, they got no justice, and they’ve been thrust into a political firestorm.”
“Black people definitely aren’t winning, because they’ve basically been told that a cop can just barge into your house and shoot you,” he added. “And not only that, they can say that they were defending themselves in your house. And as if that wasn’t wild enough, they’ll only get in trouble for the shots that they missed. Sometimes you feel like, if only the criminal justice system valued Black people as much as drywall. Because Black people are always told the same things. The same things time and time again. ‘Oh, just be a good person. You know what, if you just had a job. You know what, if you just didn’t do crime, the cops would leave you alone.’”
Noah says, “you wouldn’t have to do all that, because if you told the police to do their job better and not burst into places assuming everyone is a criminal threat, then this wouldn’t happen.”
The “Daily Show” host says it’s become clear “America is a police state and its most protected class are police officers.” But that “the police are also not winning” in this situation.
“All that happens now is that they lose the trust of the community that they’re meant to protect and serve. And now, as police, they’re running around paranoid as f— , running through the streets praying to God that they don’t get shot. Now two of them were shot, which only increases that paranoia.”
“As a society, we are all losing right now. And until there’s real justice, nobody wins,” he concluded the segment.
Watch the full video above.
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