Jon Stewart adapted a more serious form on Wednesday night's "Daily Show" to tackle the New York grand jury's "utterly depressing" decision not to indict a white NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
"I honestly don't know what to say. If comedy is tragedy plus time, I need more (expletive) time," the host said.
Just hours after 29-year-old Officer Daniel Pantaleo was not indicted for grabbing unarmed Garner and fatally holding him in a banned chokehold maneuver during an arrest in July, NYC erupted in protests on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
The Staten Island's grand jury decision on Garner's death came nine days after the Ferguson grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson over the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
During Wednesday's opening segment, "The Daily Show" host made comparisons between the two cases, adding, "...but I would really settle for less (expletive) tragedy, to be honest with you."
On July 17, police, at the request of local "minority business owners," responded to a scene where Garner was known for selling cigarettes, UK MailOnline reported. In a widely-circulated video, Pantaleo can be seen holding Garner's neck in an apparent chokehold as the man repeatedly says, "I can't breathe."
"None of the ambiguities that existed in the Ferguson case exist in the Staten Island case," Stewart said, "and yet the outcome is exactly the same."
At least with Ferguson, Stewart said, there was conflicting testimony, "but here there is none of that." And there's no question about unreliable witnesses because there's video and "we are fucking watching it."
In contrast to the Ferguson case, Stewart added that the Staten Island case appeared to be clear, Mediaite reported. "Here, there is none of that [ambiguity]. The coroner called it homicide, the guy's not acting threatening, and we know that because we are (expletive) watching it. Someone taped it."
"To look at the bright side, we're about to save ourselves a (expletive) of money on cop-camera vests," Stewart added of one of the Obama administration's proposed solutions to incidents like those in Ferguson and Staten Island. "I assume that the solution that they're proposing, if implemented, would look something like the Eric Garner case."
"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," Stewart concluded.
