Chris Rock is a popular comedian but every time a police shooting involves a black person, Americans become very interested in the skit titled “How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police.”
In the 15 year old skit, Rock delivers a mock public service announcement that essentially says as long as young black men obey the law and use common sense, they will not have any trouble with the police.
As protests surged following the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a major St. Louis paper published a letter to the editor that cited Rock’s video as “the only message that will lead to healing in Ferguson.”
Nationwide, Google searches for “Chris Rock police” spiked in August 2014 during the Ferguson protests and spiked even higher in November 2014, as Americans learned of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old black boy who was shot while playing with a toy gun in a Cleveland park.