Trevor Noah calls out Trump on comments about police brutality 'and how there isn’t enough of it'
'Many police and law enforcement groups did say Trump had gone too far and with just a few of those words he had casually undone community relation efforts,' says Daily Show host
If there is one thing Donald Trump excels at above all others, it is his constant, never flagging, ability to shock. You would have thought the world would have grown accustomed and hardened to the US President’s routine outbursts by now but somehow he is still finding novel, unchartered ways to gobsmack us.
President Trump’s recent remarks about police brutality provide a palpable example of this. The billionaire property developer appeared to endorse police violence during a speech given to law enforcement officials on Long Island, New York on Friday. He went so far as suggesting officers should not protect suspects’ heads when they are pushing them into vehicles.
“And when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon - you just see them thrown in, rough - I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’” Mr Trump said.
“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody - don’t hit their head. I said, ‘You can take the hand away, okay?’” he added, prompting loud applause and laughter from the crowd of officers.
Trevor Noah has now offered up a characteristically cutting analysis of President Trump’s speech in which he “talked about police brutality, and how there isn’t enough of it.”
“Did you see that pause before the cops started applauding that was them going 'wait we can start being rough because we have been...'," Noah added.
The comedian, who hosts The Daily Show, continued: “Don’t get it twisted, we all know Donald Trump could not care less about police brutality. On his list of priorities, it’s all the way down below international diplomacy".
Noah then cut to a screen which listed Mr Trump’s presidential priorities and catalogued police brutality as number 99 and his third child Eric Trump just below at 100.
“Many police and law enforcement groups did say that Trump had gone too far,” Noah added. “And with just a few of those words he had casually undone community relation efforts that they had been spending years trying to improve”.
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The comedian then drew attention to those police groups, unions, and politicians who sought to defend the President’s remarks as nothing more than a joke.
Noah cited Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, as an example of someone who had brushed off the comments. On Monday, she said: “I believe he was making a joke at the time.”
Donald Trump's international Presidential trips
Show all 22“Yeah, c’mon guys, don’t you understand? If you don’t like what Trump says, it’s a joke. If you do like it, then it’s policy. That’s how it works,” Noah said.
He argued Mr Trump could not have picked a more awful place to have made the so-called "joke". Mr Trump gave the speech to Suffolk County Police Department which last year saw its chief James Burke sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for a slew of misdeeds which began after his duffel bag was stolen from his parked SUV.
It turned out the duffel bag was filled with pornography and sex toys and its mysterious vanishing in December 2012 prompted Mr Burke to embark on a vigorous hunt to catch the burglar, teach him a lesson, retrieve the bag and ensure nobody learned of what had happened.
Alas, he was unsuccessful in his efforts and wound up pleading guilty to federal charges coming from accusations he beat a suspect in custody, threatened to kill him and then coerced his fellow officers into covering up the wrongdoing.
“I almost feel bad for the thief who broke into the police, SUV stole a duffle bag, and then opened it up and found it full of dildos. All the cops showing up shouting ‘drop the weapon, drop the weapon’ he’s like 'it’s not a weapon it’s for consensual pleasure',” quipped Noah.
Police chiefs snubbed President Trump’s apparent call to rough up suspects. Dignity and respect are “the bedrock principle" behind "procedural justice and police legitimacy”, said the International Association of Chiefs of Police in a statement.
Noah has been one of President Trump’s most consistent and scathing critics. The comedian, who was born in the townships of Johannesburg in South Africa, had a big act to follow after he took Jon Stewart’s place on The Daily Show in September 2015 but has rapidly found his feet.
While overall ratings have dropped, he has boosted the show’s popularity among the 18-34 millennial bracket - a highly regarded demographic among advertisers.
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