Jon Stewart says police brutality against blacks is 'a reflection of society’, slams Trump's response to crisis
Jon Stewart recently spoke up about the multiple crisis happening in the US while promoting his upcoming film ‘Irresistible’. He not only addressed the nationwide protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd, but also slammed President Donald Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a lengthy interview with The New York Times, the 57-year-old said he believed the problem with policing in the country has to do with larger societal issues. “I’d like to say I’m surprised by what happened to him [Floyd], but I’m not. This is a cycle, and I feel that, in some ways, the issue is that we’re addressing the wrong problem. We continue to make this about the police — the how of it. How can they police? Is it about sensitivity and de-escalation training and community policing? All that can make for a less-egregious relationship between the police and people of color. But the how isn’t as important as the why, which we never address. The police are a reflection of a society. They’re not a rogue alien organization that came down to torment the black community,” Stewart said.
The former ‘Daily Show’ host told The Times as he continued: “They’re enforcing segregation. Segregation is legally over, but it never ended. The police are, in some respects, a border patrol, and they patrol the border between the two Americas. We have that so that the rest of us don’t have to deal with it. Then that situation erupts, and we express our shock and indignation. But if we don’t address the anguish of a people, the pain of being a people who built this country through forced labor — people say, ‘I’m tired of everything being about race.’ Well, imagine how [expletive] exhausting it is to live that’.”
Stewart added, “There are always going to be consequences of authority”. However, he also explained that the issue can be fixed without demonizing law enforcement. “When you give someone a badge and a gun, that’s going to create its own issues, and there’s no question that those issues can be addressed with greater accountability. It can be true that you can value and admire the contribution and sacrifice that it takes to be a law-enforcement officer or an emergency medical worker in this country and yet still feel that there should be standards and accountability. Both can be true. But I still believe that the root of this problem is the society that we’ve created that contains this schism, and we don’t deal with it, because we’ve outsourced our accountability to the police.”
Later in the conversation, Stewart talked about the president’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Slamming Trump, the comedian said: “You would have thought that somebody would have mentioned to Trump the idea of rising to greatness. Instead, it’s: ‘Why don’t I tweet out that Joe Scarborough killed people? Would that be good in a pandemic?’ I guess his behavior is understandable, because what’s he going to run on, his record? He’s just going to pick at scabs.”
“He’s [Trump] a man who has suffered no consequences. His is a recklessness born of experience. He’s like a malevolent Mr. Magoo. He always knows the I-beam is going to swing down and the building is going to collapse — but who cares, because he’ll walk out unscathed. That’s what he has learned,” Stewart added.