John Oliver explains the enormous problem of police accountability

In the wake of police shootings, many officers involved are often dismissed as “bad apples.”

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver explained why this metaphor needs to stop.

The segment explored how police are rarely held accountable for misconduct. The frequency of these cases have become so dire, some high schools are offering students classes on how interact with police — sending a strong message of systemic victim-blaming to the people who are most at-risk of police violence.

He notes that dismissing police for violence against shooting victims only leads to more violence.

“The phrase is, ‘A few bad apples spoil the barrel.’ And we currently have a system which is set up to ignore bad apples, destroy bad apples’ records, persecute good apples for speaking up and shuffle dangerous, emotionally unstable apples around to the point that children have to attend fucking apple classes!”

Holding police accountable starts with the police. As Oliver says at the end of the segment, “you cannot look at our current situation and claim that anybody likes them apples.”