‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah: America has a problem

LOS ANGELES — In the wake of this week’s police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the death of five Dallas police officers, “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah tackled the divisive opinion that if a person believes that black lives matter, they must also be anti-police.

“The hardest part of having a conversation surrounding police shootings in America: It always feels like, in America, it’s like if you take a stand for something, you automatically are against something else,” he began during Thursday’s show.

“But with police shootings, it shouldn’t have to work that way. For instance, if you’re pro-Black Lives Matter, you’re assumed to be anti-police, and if you’re pro-police, then you surely hate black people. It seems that it’s either pro-cop and anti-black or pro-black and anti-cop, when, in reality, you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we all should be. That is what we should be aiming for.”

He switched gears later in the segment to address the public’s doubt in police officers when the incidents are caught on camera.

Sterling’s death in Louisiana outside of a convenience store on Tuesday and Castile’s death less than 48 hours later in Minnesota during a traffic stop are only two on an growing list of police killings caught on camera, including Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Walter Scott.

“Why is the video never enough?” he asked before listing off the names of some of the deaths at the hands of the authorities caught on camera recently. “And yet still, skepticism. And it’s only about this. When it comes to Bigfoot, people see one blurry video and people dedicate their lives to finding him.”

Noah wrapped the segment by acknowledging, “America has a problem within its police force.”

“It’s not just a black problem,” he said. “Just today, there was a third video, this time of a white kid getting shot by police while he was lying down on the ground,” said Noah. “This is an American problem. Everyone is involved … You can’t fix something until you admit that it’s broken.”