CNN host Chris Cuomo said on Friday that police reform in the U.S. will not happen until “white people’s kids start getting killed.”
Cuomo made the remarks in the context of a couple of recent police shootings where suspects did not comply with law enforcement or attempted to run.
“And you know what the answer is. You really do. You don’t like it. I don’t like. It scares me. Shootings, gun laws, access to weapons? Oh, I know when they’ll change,” Cuomo said. “Your kids start getting killed. White people’s kids start getting killed. Smoking that doobie that’s actually legal, probably in your state now, but they don’t know what it was, and then the kid runs, and then ‘Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!’ Cop was justified.”
“‘Why’d you run?’ ‘Oh, he had a baseball game tonight.’ ‘Oh? White kid? Oh, big family, that house over there?’ Those start piling up, ‘What is going on with these police? Oh, what? Maybe we shouldn’t even have police!’ That kind of mania, that kind of madness, that’ll be you. That’ll be the majority, because it’s your people,” Cuomo said. “See, now Black people start getting all guns, forming militias, protect themselves? ‘Can’t trust Deep State!’ Whoo-whoo! You’ll see a wave of change, in access and accountability. We saw it in the 60s. That’s when it changes, because that’s when it’s you.”
How many more die of the pandemic, dying from police shootings? George Floyd, Daunte Wright, I wonder if you’ll remember their names, six months from today, because there’ll be replaced by so many others.
You’re here people. What are you going to do when you see these shootings? You know what you’re going to do. “That George Floyd, did you hear about him? That Daunte Wright, did you hear about him? That 13-year-old Adam, you know he was a gangbanger.”
Why do that? Because you want to make the problem “Them,” takes the onus off the idea that you’re wrong about policing not needing to change. “Forget that. Police are trained to deal with non-compliance, with force that is not lethal. Hey, comply or die, you know what I mean.”
And you know what the answer is. You really do. You don’t like it. I don’t like. It scares me. Shootings, gun laws, access to weapons? Oh, I know when they’ll change. Your kids start getting killed. White people’s kids, start getting killed. Smoking that doobie that’s actually legal, probably in your state now, but they don’t know what it was, and then the kid runs, and then “Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!” Cop was justified.
“Why’d you run?” “Oh, he had a baseball game tonight.” “Oh? White kid? Oh, big family, that house over there?” Those start piling up, “What is going on with these police? Oh, what? Maybe we shouldn’t even have police!” That kind of mania, that kind of madness, that’ll be you. That’ll be the majority, because it’s your people.
See, now Black people start getting all guns, forming militias, protect themselves? “Can’t trust Deep State!” Whoo-whoo! You’ll see a wave of change, in access and accountability. We saw it in the 60s. That’s when it changes, because that’s when it’s you.
My job is to show you in them because there but for the grace, and the grace is forgiveness that none of us deserve for the blessings that we’re wasting in this country. That is our reality. And the reality is clear, and the state of play is unchanging, and that is not a recipe for any type of longevity.
And what do we do here? What do I do here? I get lost in the next, the next name, the next iteration. The “New,” in news, dominates, because you get bored. “I’ve heard enough. I’ve heard enough. I cared about George Floyd. It was wrong. But I’ve had it with the trial, it’s too long. Just let me know when they have a verdict.”
We pretend that we’re not just seeing the same lying, and lack of leading, and bleeding, and death, and pain, new names, new faces, new places. Same problems, you know it, I know it. I know that you know.
The testing, the voting, the vaccines, the dying, the shooting, the drugs, the suicide, the teaching, the testing of education, all of it, it all hits the poor, and the poor of color worst, and we know it. And we’ve always known it.
I remember my father preaching about this, when my teeth were two inches apart, when I was a fat kid, waiting to eat, on the steps of my house, while he was talking to people that he was asking to vote for him, in one of the elections that he lost like five, six in a row.
“Us and Them!” “Us and Them!” There’s never a solution that doesn’t begin with “We.” “We the people,” they started it. Every copy you see of the document blows those letters up. Why? Because that’s all we have is the interconnectedness and the interdependence. If you give up on one another, that’s it.
And it doesn’t matter how impressive, or resonant, or you feel the words to be, because all you have is prayer. All you have is hope that at some point something, make some iteration, a generation of us, realize that the only solution is not less, but more, more people, more enabled, to do more with talent, to make more pie for all of us. That is the only way that this country ever approaches what she is supposed to be. And the only question for us is what will it take to get there?
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