Trevor Noah Makes Emotional Plea to Cops After Rayshard Brooks Killing: “When Is It Enough?”

Trevor Noah is at his breaking point. Last night, The Daily Show host made an impassioned plea to police officers following the death of Rayshard Brooks, an Atlanta man who was killed during an encounter with police. Noah was visibly emotional as he recounted the details of Brooks’ death, and he lamented the fact that police continue to harm Black Americans, even as anti-police brutality protests sweep the globe. “How long? How much? When is it enough?” asked the late night host.

Noah opened last night’s show with a powerful statement: “It’s another Monday of another police brutality incident.” The Daily Show host was specifically referring to the killing of Rayshard Brooks, who was found sleeping in his car in an Atlanta-area Wendy’s on Friday night and was shot twice in the back by police officers as he tried to flee the scene. Brooks’ death has since been ruled a homicide, and the cop who shot him, Officer Garrett Rolfe, has been fired from the force.

“In the beginning, it seems like everything is going to be fine,” Noah said of the video of Brooks’ death. “And then, in one moment, in just a few seconds, every part of that normal story turns into the abnormal ending that we’ve come to know as interactions with police and Black people.”

Noah admitted that the video shows that the situation was “fucking messy,” but it doesn’t excuse the fact that officers used deadly force on Brooks. “Why are armed police dealing with a man who’s sleeping in his car?” he asked. “These are the questions we need to ask. Why, why, why, why? Why are armed police the first people who have to go and respond to somebody who’s sleeping in their car who’s drunk?”

He went on to imagine a world in which “police are truly just trying to protect and serve” the American public. “‘We’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,'” Noah imagined a police officer telling Brooks upon finding him sleeping in his car. “‘The country’s burning down because of the way Black people are dealt with by the police, so let us show you just in a moment that it doesn’t always have to end the way you think it has to end.’ I’m not saying that they had to do that, but it would have been nice.”

Noah concluded by reflecting on the many Americans who tell Black people “If you didn’t do that, you’d still be alive” after stories of police brutality make news. “The truth is, the ‘ifs’ keep on changing,” said the host. “If you didn’t resist arrest, you would still be alive. Or if you didn’t run away from the cops, you’d still be alive. If you didn’t have a toy gun and were 12 years old in the middle of a park, then you’d still be alive. If you weren’t wearing a hoodie, then you’d still be alive. If you didn’t talk back to the cops, you’d still be alive. If you weren’t sleeping in your bed as a Black woman, you’d still be alive.”

“There’s one common thread beyond all the ‘ifs,'” said Noah. “If you weren’t Black, maybe you’d still be alive.”

Watch Trevor Noah’s emotional monologue in the clip above.

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