CNN’s Chris Cuomo claimed late Friday that substantial changes to policing in America would come only when “white people’s kids start getting killed.”
During a segment on his show, Cuomo lashed out at white Americans who have resisted calls for police to face accountability, particularly those who have sought to justify the shootings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and others who have died at the hands of police, exclaiming, “Shootings? Gun laws? Access to weapons? Your kids start getting killed? White people’s kids start getting killed?”
“Those start piling up,” he added, and people will ask, “What is going on with these police?”
His remarks came following days of protests in Minnesota and Chicago over the deaths of Daunte Wright last Sunday and Toledo in March, which was captured on body camera footage released last week that revealed that Toledo appeared to be surrendering when he was fatally shot by an officer.
The name of the officer involved in Toledo’s shooting has not been released, while the officer involved in Wright’s shooting resigned last week and was charged with second-degree manslaughter after police claimed that she mistakenly drew her gun instead of a Taser.
Protests against police brutality and racism erupted across the nation last year following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In addition to Wright’s shooting, that community remains on edge ahead of an expected verdict in the murder trial for the officer involved in Floyd’s death in the coming weeks.