Trevor Noah On Racist Police Incidents: “Where Are The Good Apples?”

Greg Evans
·2 min read
2
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah bypassed punchlines in the impassioned video he posted yesterday about police brutality, posing the question, “Where are the good apples?”

“We’re told time and time again that these incidents we keep experiencing are because of bad apples” on the police forces, Noah says early in the video.

More from Deadline

Noah says the video was prompted by recent news of police encounters with Black men, including the incident in Windsor, Virginia, in which two officers handcuffed and pepper-sprayed Black Latino Army Lt. Caron Nazario. “He’s in military fatigues, he’s one of the troops, and he’s being treated like trash from the cops, and not just as a troop but as a human being,” Noah says.

“They claim they were afraid but there’s only one person exhibiting fear in that video and it’s him.”

The Daily Show host also references the deaths of Daunte Wright, Philando Castile and George Floyd.

“I’m not saying there are no good policeman, don’t get me wrong,” Noah says, “but where are the good apples? Where are the cops who are stopping the cop from putting his knee on that neck? Where are the other cops when Philando Castile is losing his life?”

He continues, “I think there are many people who are good on the police force…but I think it’s because they themselves know if they do something they’re going against the system. The system is more powerful than any individual. The system in policing is doing exactly what it’s meant to do in America and that is to keep poor people in their place. Who happens to be the most poor in America? Black people…”

Noah concludes by stating that the system is not broken because “it’s working the way it was designed to work.”

“We’re not dealing with bad apples,” he says. “We’re dealing with a rotten tree that happens to grow good apples, but for the most part the tree that was planted is bearing the fruit that it was intended to.”

Watch the video above.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.