Trevor Noah already spent time this week discussing the death of Philando Castile and how it reflects on the experience of being a black man in America. He added his own personal experience to the mix between commercial breaks during Tuesday’s episode, but the release of the dashcam footage showing Castile’s death forced Noah to address the shooting on the air. While the situation was already grim enough to prompt Noah’s previous comments, the release of the footage — four days after the officer involved was found not guilty — gave Noah’s comments even more weight and forced him to admit that the situation finally broke him.
“You see so many of these videos and you start to get numb. But this one? Seeing the child, that little girl getting out the car after watching a man get killed. It broke my heart into a million pieces.”
As Noah points out, that’s a black father that is gone after being shot four times in front of his child, and while abiding by the law. He echoes the sentiments he shared with the audience on Tuesday’s episode, claiming the verdict basically makes it officially reasonable to be afraid of someone because they are black and If they consider this self defense after watching the dashcam video then the current trend of shootings is more depressing than he thought.
Apart from Noah, the verdict, the release of the dashcam video, and the details of the officer’s comments to investigators sparked a new wave of outrage over Castile’s death. According to The Washington Post, even members of the NRA are pressing for the organization to make a comment about the shooting since Castile had a valid permit for his weapon. The NRA did release an initial statement following the shooting, only referring to the incident as “troubling” and promising to comment further “once all the facts are known.”
(Via The Daily Show / The Washington Post)