Jon Stewart to Eric Garner: You Think pain and grief are hard to digest (12/4/2014)

You know, for the past couple of nights

here on the program, we've been dealing with the fallout from

the grand jury decision in Missouri

failing to indict the officer responsible for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

We did our best here to process those events.

Even enjoyed, actually, a bit of fun at the expense of the

St. Louis Rams and St. Louis Police Association twitter war.

And I know, uh, doing those bits helps no one

other than maybe us here at the show

individually as a creative outlet

a catharsis, a way of processing emotion

that may be otherwise undigested

By the way, that process brought to you by....

Arbys. (laughter)

"Arbys: You think pain and grief are hard to digest?"

(Laughter)

But anyway, at least that process has begun

and we were glad to be able to move forward

ever so slowly, hoping that we might,

as a country, have a respite from these types of injustices

and we did have a respite

for maybe... (ugh, bleep) what time is it?

"No indictment in the death of Eric Garner

a grand jury in New York City has decided

not to charge a white New York City police officer

in the death of an unarmed

African American man."

I (stuttering), I just.... I don't know. I honestly don't know what to say.

if comedy is tragedy plus time

I need more (bleep)ing time

but I would really settle for less (bleep)ing tragedy to be honest with you

you know, I think what is so utterly depressing

is that none of the ambiguities that existed in the Ferguson case

exist in the Staten Island case

and yet the outcome is exactly the same

no crime, no trial, all harm, no foul.

In Ferguson, at least you had conflicting

witness testimony, you had conflicting forensics

you had the specter, at least, of police

self defense. But here, there is none of that

the coroner called it a homicide

the guy's not acting threatening

and we know that not through witness testimony or

unreliable bystanders, but because we are

(bleep)ing watching it

someone taped it

a couple of days ago, the White House proposed

more cameras on cop vests as a solution

to this type of violence

I assume that the solution they're proposing

if implemented, would look something like the Eric Garner case

I mean maybe, to look at the bright side

(pause) uh... we're about to safe ourselves a (bleep) load of

money on cop camera vests

but damn.... we are definitely

not living in a post-racial society

and I can imagine there are a lot of people

out there wondering how much of a society we're

living in at all.

uh... and that's our show. So uh, cha cha cha (laughter)

Blah! I don't- don't know what to say!

It just happened. So I'm, I have not had a chance

to really digest it

uh, I'm gonna need a segway

I'm gonna need a piece of video footage

to change the mood here

(audience laughs, video has no sound)

(laughter)

Ok, it's nice, I like it, although in my current frame of mind

I can't help but wonder, oh, of course

the white cat's getting a massage

(laughter and applause)

(comidically yells in frustration)

(bleeeeeeeep)

(laughter)

well now I'm at least ready for some good news.