Chris Cuomo says police reform won’t happen until white kids start getting killed
‘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,’ Cuomo said
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Your support makes all the difference.CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has said that police reform won't happen until "white people’s kids start getting killed" after a string of police shootings of people of colour.
"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," Mr Cuomo said during his show on Friday.
Mr Cuomo criticised those who blame victims after police shootings. He specifically blasted those who have resisted calls for police accountability, and have tried to justify the shootings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and others who died during altercations with police.
The CNN host said: "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.”
Mr Cuomo’s remarks come after protests in Minnesota and Chicago over the deaths of Duante Wright last Sunday, and Adam Toledo in March.
Body camera footage revealed that 13-year-old Adam appeared to be surrendering when the fatal shooting occurred, The Independent reported.
Mr Cuomo suggested that if the victims of the police killings were white, the attitude of many white Americans would be different.
He said: "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!'," the CNN anchor said, while imitating gunfire.
“Those start piling up, ‘What is going on with these police? Oh, what? Maybe we shouldn’t even have police!’” Mr Cuomo argued. “That kind of mania, that kind of madness, that’ll be you. That’ll be the majority because it’s your people.”
The police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Adam Toledo has not been identified.
Officer Kimberly Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Mr Wright. The Brooklyn Center police department said that she mistook her gun for her Taser.
Racial justice protests erupted across the US in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
A verdict in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering Mr Floyd, could come as early as Monday, The Independent reported.
Calling for unity, Mr Cuomo said: "Us and them, us and them. There's never a solution that doesn't begin with we. We, the people."
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