Monday, June 8, 2020

John Oliver on Police Brutality

John Oliver devoted his entire Sunday night show to police brutality and how it runs hand-in-hand with white supremacy.  “The police have not just been incidentally tainted by racism,” Oliver pointed out. “For much of U.S. history, law enforcement meant enforcing laws that were explicitly designed to subjugate Black people.”
That, he said, means more than just weeding out a “bad apple” but rather dismantling an entire system ― and replacing it with something that more effectively serves the communities.  Oliver pointed out that many on the right have seized on the slogan as meaning that people want to do away with police altogether, playing a clip of Fox News host Tucker Carlson arguing the terms means   “No more cops.”

“Fuck you forever, Tucker Carlson, you sentient polo mallet,” Olive retorted before dismantling Carlson’s talking points.  “De-funding the police absolutely does not mean that we eliminate all cops and just succumb to the purge,” he said. “Instead, it’s about moving away from a narrow conception of public safety that relies on policing and punishment and investing in a community’s actual safety net.”

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