Trevor Noah addresses the Breonna Taylor verdict: 'Nobody is winning'

A grand jury came back Wednesday with a verdict in the matter of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old ER technician from Louisville, Ky. who was killed in her home by cops executing a no-knock warrant. Only one officer, Brett Hankison, was indicted for "wanton endangerment" for firing into a neighboring apartment, but not directly for her death. As nationwide protests broke out, including one demonstration in Kentucky where two officers were shot and wounded, Trevor Noah had one question: "Who is winning in this whole thing?"

Noah, speaking on The Daily Show Thursday night, wasn't talking about President Trump or presidential candidate Joe Biden. He was talking about the people on the ground. "Because to me it looks like nobody is winning," he said.

"Breonna Taylor's family isn't winning. They lost a loved one. They got no justice and they've been thrust into a political firestorm," Noah continued. "Black people definitely aren't winning because they've basically been told that a cop can just barge into your house and shoot you. And not only that, they can say that they were defending themselves in your house. And as if that wasn't wild enough, they only get in trouble for the shots that they missed? If only the criminal justice system valued Black people as much as drywall."

Taylor was fatally shot multiple times while she slept one night in March as officers stormed her apartment amid a narcotics investigation. Their no-knock search warrant was connected to a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found on the premises. Prosecutors in the case argued the gunfire were justified in protecting the officers against Taylor's boyfriend.

"Why doesn't America treat the police as responsible for their own actions?" Noah asked. "They're police, not bears. If they were bears, then you could say, 'Oh, Black people, you shouldn't be hanging around the honey. I mean, you're gonna get hurt.' But they're not. They're human beings. They're human beings who should be accountable for what they do."

To his early point, he said police aren't winning in this situation, either, because they are losing the trust of the communities they are supposed to be protecting. "Now, as police, they're running around paranoid as f--- running through the streets, praying to God they don't get shot," Noah added. "Now two of them were shot which only increases their paranoia."

Noah took note of those people joining protests for the purpose of looting, but said "a policeman is a policeman. They are people who can be held accountable. They are part of a structure and when they are not held accountable, only chaos will ensue."

"What does it mean when the system says everything that happened in this Breonna Taylor shooting was legal? Issuing the no-knock warrant was legal, breaking down the door was legal, killing her in her bed was legal," Noah concluded. "At that point, you can say mob justice isn't justice, but clearly justice isn't justice either. And the truth is, people, nobody's winning. As a society, we are all losing right now and until there's real justice, nobody wins."

Watch EW's new daily series, Last Night's Late Night, every morning on Quibi.

Related content: