Vice President Mike Pence delivered his speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night when The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah turned to many more pressing matters.
“After the George Floyd protests, which swept not only the US but many countries around the world, there was certainly a feeling that this could be the moment of systemic change,” the host began. “But as we are reminded again, there is still a long way to go.”
Noah is obviously talking about the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this week. “I will never get used to how fast police go from issuing demands to using deadly force,” he said. “What happened to warning shots? Or a suspicious approach? Are we really meant to believe that the only two options a police officer has is to do nothing or shoot someone in the back seven times? ”
After playing the powerful words of Blake’s sister, Noah said it “only makes sense that she be angry.” Because “there is almost no accountability of the police” in these cases and she knows that. “Black people are tired of hearing ‘I’m sorry’ and then nothing happens,” he added. “For what they actually hear is, ‘I’m sorry this is happening, and I’m sorry this is going to happen again.’
The host said “frustration and anger and pain” also helped explain the protests in Kenosha streets this week where a 17-year-old vigilante crossed all state lines and shot and killed two people during those demonstrations.
“Let me tell you something,” Noah said. “Nobody drives a gun into a city because they love someone else’s business. That’s some bullshit. No one ever thought, ‘Oh, it’s my solemn duty to pick up a gun and protect that TJ Maxx.’ They do it because they hope to shoot someone. ”
“And while what happened to those shootings last night is tragic, what happened after that was brilliant,” he continued. “It really made me wonder why some people are shot seven times in the back, while other people are treated like humans and reasoned with and taken into skin without bullets in their body.”
Noah asked, “How come Jacob Blake was seen as a deadly threat to a theoretical gun he might have and might be trying to commit a crime, but this shooter who was armed and had already shot people – who had showed that he was a threat – was arrested the next day, given full due process of the law and generally treated like a man whose life is at stake? “
“How did Dylann Roof shoot up a church, James Holmes shoot up a movie theater and both live to tell about it?” he asked. “Why is it that the police decide that some threats should be extinguished immediately, while other threats are given the privilege to spread?”
“The answer is that it does not make the gun as important as whoever holds the gun,” Noah concluded. “Because for some people, Black Skin is the most threatening weapon of all.”
.
