Larry Wilmore on The Nightly Show: “The punishment for being a black man shouldn’t be death”

He may have more to say on the matter tonight, given the death of Philando Castile— whose ultimately fatal shooting by a police officer in Minnesota was caught on a horrifying Facebook Live video—but last night Larry Wilmore paused The Nightly Show to reflect on the death of another black man, Alton Sterling, who was shot and killed by police on Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday:

Heartfelt and candid with touches of humor, in the video Wilmore says he and his staff are “tired” of being confronted with this violence over and over again, and especially tired with news outlets’ rush to bring up victims’ criminal records, as if that justified shooting them down in the street somehow. “No matter what his crimes were, Alton Sterling did not deserve to be executed for it,” he says. “The punishment for resisting arrest shouldn’t be death. The punishment for selling bootleg CDs shouldn’t be death. The punishment for having a gun in an open-carry state shouldn’t be death. The punishment for being a black man shouldn’t be death.”