‘They are brutalized’: D.L. Hughley is moved to tears speaking about police shooting victims

An emotional D.L. Hughley took to CNN Thursday morning to discuss the aftermath of two fatal police-involved shootings involving African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Hughley spoke with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and was openly emotional after Cuomo referenced statements made by the mother of Philando Castile, the man killed in during a traffic stop on the outskirts of St. Paul, in which she stated that her son had been raised to always comply with the police and that he actively worried about being killed in an encounter with law enforcement.

Hughley, father of three, spoke of his own fears in raising his children with the pervasive threat of gun violence.

“Every black or brown parent that I know has a conversation with their children where they tell them exactly how to act around the police,” Hughley said.

“That is abhorrent,” he continued. “That is immoral.”

After joking briefly about his son being a millennial and still living at home, Hughley admitted that he doesn’t go to sleep until his grown children come home at night.

“We love our children. We love our parents, our mothers, our fathers. They are brutalized and nobody says anything,” Hughley said, his voice breaking.

The actor and comedian has served as a CNN contributor since his short-lived series on the network “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News” aired in 2008-09.

Beyond his own fears and experiences as a parent, Hughley serves as a uniquely qualified expert when it comes to the lifespan of black men. In 2012, Hughley won a Peabody Award for his Comedy Central special “D.L. Hughley: The Endangered List” which veered from satirical to serious as it made its case for placing black men on the endangered species list.

libby.hill@latimes.com

Twitter: @midwestspitfire

ALSO

‘You shot 4 bullets into him, sir’: Fatal police shooting captured on Facebook stream

What did Shonda Rhimes say about the petition to fire Jesse Williams for BET Awards speech?

Sarah Silverman ‘insanely lucky to be alive’ after health scare that put her in intensive care for a week