The Daily Show host Trevor Noah delivered a powerful monologue in response to the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot last week in Atlanta after being apprehended for sleeping in his car while drunk. After learning what happened to Brooks, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff felt motivated to open up about the many (non-confrontational) encounters that she had with police as a young adult (and teen), none of which resulted in any lasting consequences. Mostly, she was let off the hook with verbal warnings.
Vernoff feels that her experiences point directly toward white privilege, and she’s speaking out in an effort to spur change because, as Noah stated on Monday night of Brooks, “He’s broken some law, a law not worth dying for. I think we can all agree on that.” What follows is a lengthy Twitter thread from Vernoff, who details how she shoplifted thousands of dollars of mall merchandise as a teenager and walked away with no record. She was also pulled over for drunk driving as a young adult and semi-refused to take a breathalyzer, which a cop laughed off and let her go.
When I was 15, I was chased through a mall by police who were yelling “Stop thief!” I had thousands of dollars of stolen merchandise on me. I was caught, booked, sentenced to 6 months of probation, required to see a parole officer weekly. I was never even handcuffed.
THREAD:
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
When I was 18, I was pulled over for drunk driving. When the Police Officer asked me to blow into the breathalyzer, I pretended to have asthma and insisted I couldn’t blow hard enough to get a reading.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
The officer laughed then asked my friends to blow and when one of them came up sober enough to drive, he let me move to the passenger seat of my car and go home with just a verbal warning.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
She also detailed how she committed two physical attacks, one of which happened in front an officer, who acted… kind of impressed. And he laughed as well.
When I was 19, I got angry at a girl for flirting with my sister’s boyfriend and drunkenly attacked her in the middle of a party. I swung a gallon jug of water, full force, at her head. The police were never called.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
When I was twenty, with all of my strength, I punched a guy in the face — while we were both standing two feet from a cop. The guy went to the ground and came up bloody and screaming that he wanted me arrested, that he was pressing charges.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
The cop pulled me aside and said, “You don’t punch people in front of cops,” then laughed and said that if I ever joined the police force he’d like to have me as a partner. I was sent into my apartment and told to stay there.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
Ultimately, Vernoff is “asking the white people reading this to think about the crimes you’ve committed… Think of all the mistakes you’ve made that you were allowed to survive.” She hopes that people will realize that Brooks should never have been shot by police, and his fate is evidence of “a broken system that must change.”
If I had been shot in the back by police after the shoplifting incident – in which I knowingly and willfully and soberly and in broad daylight RAN FROM THE COPS – would you say I deserved it?
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
I’m asking the white people reading this to think about the crimes you’ve committed. (Note: You don't call them crimes. You and your parents call them mistakes.) Think of all the mistakes you’ve made that you were allowed to survive.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
Defunding the police is not about “living in a lawless society.” It’s about the fact that in this country, we’re not supposed to get shot by police for getting drunk.
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
The system that lets me live and murders Rayshard Brooks is a broken system that must change. Stop defending it. Demand the change. #BlackLivesMatter #WhitePrivilege #DefundPolice
— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020
Selma and When They See Us director Ava DuVernay reacted to Vernoff’s outpouring. “This is a white woman talking honestly about her experiences,” she tweeted. “[A]nd it’s one of the best threads on the criminalization of Black people that I’ve read lately.”
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1272747372758487041
