Following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white officer’s knee, then-White House national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien was asked if systemic racism is a problem in law enforcement agencies on CNN. “I don’t think there is systemic racism. I think 99.9 percent of our law enforcement officers are great Americans,” he replied. “There are a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement a terrible name.” The “one bad apple” excuse is one we’ve all heard a million times, and The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is sick of it.
“We’re told time and time again that these incidents that Black Americans are experiencing are because of bad apples, right?” he said. “There are ‘bad apples’ in these police departments who are doing these things. They use chokeholds that are not allowed. They use excessive force. They’re violent in their words and in their actions to the people they’re meant to be protecting and serving.”
This begs the question: “Where are the good apples?” Noah continued. “If we’re meant to believe that the police system in America, the system of policing itself is not fundamentally broken, then we would need to see good apples.” Noah isn’t saying there are no good police officers, but he is asking “where the good apples are, and what I mean by that is, where are the cops who are stopping the cop from putting their knee on George Floyd’s neck? Because there’s not one cop at that scene.”
You can watch the clip above.
