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Late-night host Bill Maher slammed America’s ‘mono-focus on race,’ saying it distracts from some of the country’s ‘realer problems.’
On his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Friday night, Maher pointed out that much of the violence over the past few weeks was committed by non-white people.
Tyre Nichols, 29, for example, was beaten to death on January 7 by five black cops, while two mass shootings over the past week were carried out by Asian men in California.
Gunman Hu Can Tran, 72, shot himself after killing 11 people at a celebration in Monterey Park last weekend, while Chunli Zhao, 66, is accused of shooting dead seven people and wounding another in the Half Moon Bay area.
Late night host Bill Maher on Friday slammed America’s ‘mono-focus on race,’ saying it distracts from larger issues
Maher began his panel discussion Friday with former Congressman Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio, and The Free Press founder Bari Weiss by describing the ‘rage’ that has unfolded in these recent tragedies.
‘This week, people learned the names of a couple of cities here in California, Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park was the other one,’ he began.
‘And you know, these shootings happen. We go through this ritual where then we wait for them to announce the race of the shooter.
‘We’re waiting for the Oscar nominations, because that’s you know, somehow to a lot of people the most important thing.
‘And I just thought it was very interesting that this week, Asians were killed by Asians — two Asian men who were, you know, 66 and 72.
‘And then this week, we just got video of the Memphis Five. A black man is brutally beaten in Memphis by five cops. They’re all black.
‘I guess what I’m asking is America’s culture of violence, it does go deeper than race, right?
‘And I think this mono-focus we have on race is short-circuiting us trying to fix some of the realer problems. Would you agree?’
Ryan responds by saying there are ‘definitely deeper concerns here.
‘And this is an opportunity for us to have that conversation. The conversation about mental health, the conversation about guns the conversation about — ‘
‘Cops,’ Maher suggests.
‘The cops and the stress, and the stress the cops are under,’ Ryan concedes.
‘And I’m not defending these guys, of course. This is a tragedy. They should be prospected [to the] full extent of the law, the whole nine yards.
‘But if we don’t at some level realize that it’s not a white cop or a black cop, it’s a cop who’s under stress who’s underpaid,’ he said, noting that cops in his congressional district were being paid just $14 an hour.
At that point, Bari Weiss jumped into the conversation, saying that ‘basically every weekend in Chicago’ should be classified as hate crime due to black-on-black crime in the city.
Former Congressman Tim Ryan said the recent tragedies are an opportunity for Americans to have a discussion about mental health and the stress cops are under
Bari Weiss, the founder of the Free Press, said a perpetrator’s race does not matter to the family of the victim
‘We hear about a horrible incident and we want to see the race or identity of the perpetrator and the race and identity of the victim, and we know exactly how it will play based on that,’ she said.
‘But to the family of the person that’s murdered, does it matter? I don’t really think it does.’
Maher responded: ‘It’s also misleading that everything is always racial. I mean I feel like this is on of the big flaws of the left these days. They have this mono-focus, you know, again when the education system breaks down, people don’t know a hell of a lot.
‘So they focus on something that’s very obvious: black and white. Everyone can understand racism, and of course, it is still a real thing in this country, it’s just not the only thing.’
‘Right,’ Weiss agreed. ‘And a black life should matter if the perpetrator of the crime is white and a black life should matter if the perpetrator of the crime, as it often is in a city like like Chicago, is black.’
She then went on to say that she hoped the new body camera footage would not lead to renewed calls to defund the police, to which Maher said communities of color would pay the price.
‘Again with the woke, who pays for that, when there’s less police and less competent police?’ he asked, rhetorically. ‘A lot of people of color communities where they want more policing.’
Tyre Nichols, 29, died of his injuries after he was beaten by cops in Memphis, Tennessee
Body camera footage showed officers repeatedly pepper spraying him and kicking him
The segment was filmed before horrific body camera footage was released showing the moment Tyre Nichols was stopped by police, him fleeing, then the vicious beating when they caught up and the lack of medical care.
Nichols, who was born in Sacramento and moved to Memphis in February 2020, was driving home from a suburban park on January 7, when a police officer said he was ‘cutting through traffic.’
Police pull him over, with one officer ordering Nichols to ‘Get the f*** out of the f****** car,’ before wrestling him out.
Nichols can be heard protesting, telling the officer: ‘Damn, I didn’t do anything. Hey, I didn’t.’ The officer tells him: ‘Turn your a** around.’
The officers attempt to push Nichols, father of a four-year-old son, to the ground.
Nichols can be seen objecting, but, when one officer threatens to ‘Tase your a**,’ Nichols replies: ‘Alright, I’m on the ground – I’m on the ground.’
He is sitting, and the officer instructs him: ‘Lay down. Get on the f****** ground. I’m going to Tase you. ‘I’m going to break your s***.’
Nichols has the Taser prodded into his left thigh, and is told: ‘B****, put your hands behind your back.’
The officers attempt to put him in handcuffs, telling him: ‘I’m going to knock your hands the f*** out.’
Nichols replies: ‘OK, you guys are doing a lot right now.’ He tells them: ‘I’m just trying to go home.’
The officers continue trying to push him to lie down. Nichols replies, with growing frustration: ‘I am on the ground!’
‘On your stomach!’ an officer replies. ‘I can’t breathe,’ Nichols said. But the police continue to pepper spray the victim.
‘What the f*** man?’ says one of the officers. Nichols scrambles to his feet and runs. One officer yells: ‘Taser, taser!’
Nichols continues running, taking his t-shirt partially off as he runs. ‘Oh s***,’ says one officer, and they both begin running after him, with pepper spray in their eyes.
Officers eventually catch up to Nichols, with the body camera footage showing two officers kneeling over Nichols as he cries: ‘I didn’t do anything!’
The cops threaten to pepper spray him again as three officers pin him down to pepper spray once again.
Charged with second degree murder are (top, left to right) Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and (bottom, left to right) Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith
Soon, one officer pushes him onto his back, yelling: ‘Get on your knees.’ Nichols is lying on his side, and yells: ‘Mom!’
‘Give me your hands. Give me your f****** hands,’ the officer commands, and Nichols replies: ‘Alright, alright.’
Another officer runs into sight, and someone says: ‘Watch out. Spray’ Pepper spray is deployed yet again, getting into the face of at least one officer.
The other officers can be heard yelling at Nichols to give them his hands as Nichols continues to yell for his mother.
He tries to push himself up on his right arm, leaning on his right side, when a third officer kicks him in the top half of his body, forcing Nichols onto his back.
The officer who kicked moves to the top of Nichols’s body, and again kicks him with his right leg, this time in the head.
Soon, blows begin raining down on Nichols, who becomes unable to stand upright.
Still, one of the officers takes a swing at him, and punches him with others soon joining in,
After around six blows, Nichols could be seen slumping to the floor – his right leg outstretched, left leg bent at the knee.
By this point, three officers are on top of him when another runs into view and kicks Nichols in the ribs.
Following the brutal beating, Nichols could be seen writhing and twitching, thrashing around on the floor, as the officers congratulate themselves.
It is only 24 minutes after the beating stopped that an ambulance arrives on the scene.
Nichols was then put on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital, where he would die three days later.
A mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration last weekend left 11 dead
The two mass shootings in California over the past week were allegedly committed by elderly Asian men. Hu Can Tran, 72, allegedly opened fire in Monterey Park, while Chunli Zhao, 66, is accused of shooting dead seven people and wounding another in the Half Moon Bay area
The horrifying footage came as Americans were still reeling from two mass shootings in California.
Authorities say Hu Can Tran shot dead 11 people at a Lunar New Years celebration in Monterey Park last weekend before turning the gun on himself.
He opened fire at the Star Dance Studio at 10.22pm last Saturday with his illegal semi-automatic pistol, striking 20 people aged between 52 to 72.
Tran fired a total of 42 rounds from his 9mm semiautomatic assault weapon and then drove to another nearby dance hall where an employee wrestled the gun away from him.
The gunman later shot himself dead in his white van he used to escape the scene during a police stand-off last Sunday.
The motive for the shooting is unclear, but Tran’s ex-wife confirmed he used to teach lessons at the studio and was quick to anger. Authorities are investigating whether Tran was looking for his ex-wife when he committed the massacre.
Just a few days later, Chunli Zhao allegedly shot dead seven people and wounded another at a plant nursery and a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay.
Investigators have not said publicly what the motive for the shooting is but San Mateo County Sheriff spokesman Eamonn Allen said the signs point to workplace violence.
He said that Zhao entered the mushroom farm and opened fire, killing four and leaving another seriously wounded. He then drove to another nearby farm where he had previously worked, and killed another three people.
Zhao was taken into custody hours after the attack while parking his van in a Half Moon Bay police substation.
He is said to be cooperating with the investigation.
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