Actor and comedian Nick Cannon has called for a new normal and total reform of the police force in the wake of the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of white cops in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The host of The Nick Cannon Show penned an essay called Why I Had To Go To Minneapolis, which was published in Variety amid a surge of protests across the country demanding an end to police brutality and more racial equality.
Cannon explained that he felt the need to visit Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed because he “needed to be right there on 38th Street and Chicago where George Floyd’s life was tragically stolen from him.”
Nick Cannon’ needed to see’ Minneapolis community
“I needed to see the people in that community, how much love they had for their community and their people, and how much pain this has caused. We feel the pain go across the world, the anger and the hurt. Those visuals will never be removed from our minds.”
He also condemned the fact that despite the pandemic people are still resorting to focusing on old divisions: “We’re in the middle of a pandemic and instead of coming closer together and operating as one humanity, people…. protect the focus on old mind-sets of classism and racism.”
Cannon argued that we need a new normal as the old normal was “clearly… killing us on many levels. What we need is a new normal, a new paradigm.”
The father of three then called for a total reform of policing; he pointed to the fact his children are afraid of cops, “My kids are scared of police officers. In their minds, they’re the bad guys. This is clearly the problem.”
Nick Cannon wants ‘peace officers’ not police officers
He suggested that since people are supposed to feel protected and safe in the presence of cops than any reform should include replacing the term “police officer” with “peace officer.”
Towards the end of his essay, he wrote of how “the so-called good cops” need to stop allowing what happened to George Floyd to continue. “One bad cop isn’t acting alone. There are several other bad cops allowing that one to do what he is doing,” he explained.
Other celebrities have also expressed their hopes that change for the better might come out of the death of George Floyd. Jane Fonda spoke recently in an interview where she called for policies to be changed and for white people to improve their understanding of racial inequality.
Even basketball legend Michael Jordan made a rare foray into politics over the weekend when he released a statement condemning police brutality and called for more racial equality.