When the looting starts, the shooting starts.

[Annamaria14]

Can you believe that Trump has just tweeted this comment? He is talking about the protests about George Floyd's death. He has also called the protestors "thugs".

Twitter has put a warning on his twitter post, saying that it "glorifies violence". It is also racist!

The "historical context" is a reference to the late 1960s, when the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" was coined by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, in reference to his aggressive policing policies in black neighbourhoods.

I think from the perspective of black people in America, violence and arson are reasonable protests at this point.

People bitched when they protested by kneeling for the national anthem, but it didn't stop the police killing people for being black. They want to be heard, and so far peaceful protest hasn't worked.

Why were white people with weapons allowed to protest by storming state capitol buildings with no police intervention just two weeks ago, when unarmed black people cannot go about their legitimate business without fear of violence or death by the police?

It's racist. He's calling them thugs because they are black.

Also he is gleeful at the thought of shooting people. I cannot believe that someone who is so eager to turn to violence is running one of the most powerful countries in the world.

The looters are a disgrace and in no way honour the man killed by police. They should all be arrested.

And we are “in bed” with this racist shitbag thanks to Brexit.

@Needamanicure

Trump is out of control but he was elected by the American public - they actually chose him to run their country

Madness to many of us but in a democratic country even complete idiots/narcisists/out of control individuals can be elected .....

The US is a very strange country

He was narrowly elected - in fact he got slightly less than half of the popular vote, but won the electoral college. So you certainly can't say of the American public as a whole that they chose him to run their country.

I thought the governor spoke very well about the black community's understandable anger and sorrow. And then Trump totally undermined what he had said.

To be fair, if I lived in a society where my husband or child could be murdered by the police in plain sight, I think I would want to burn it down.

This can't go on in America.

He's basically given his core support of right wing, red necked, racist gun nuts the go ahead to start shooting protesters, or any black person they simply don't like the look of. At least, that is how many of his supporters will interpret it.

Following the spat between him and Twitter with interest. I hope Twitter ban him from their platform. That will hurt his ego a hell of a lot more than being impeached.

Out of interest, does he even have the power to send in the troops as he has threatened to do? I thought the National Guard were controlled at the state level, not federal, and surely the federal government sending troops into a state without invitation would be a constitutional crisis.

Makes me feel sick. I really hope that Americans vote him out of office in November. I've got family in Minnesota and they're appalled. I can't get my head around how they went from Obama to Trump?

@TooTrueToBeGood

Out of interest, does he even have the power to send in the troops as he has threatened to do? I thought the National Guard were controlled at the state level, not federal, and surely the federal government sending troops into a state without invitation would be a constitutional crisis.

This sounds about right to me. My understanding is that the constitution was in large part drafted by men very much influenced by European emigrees who had fled political persecution - so a lot of it is about protecting individual states, and the individuals within them, from the overweening centralised power of the centralised government.

"We, the people..." and all that.

They could stop all this by just charging the fuckers.

Of course I can believe it.

The man is a Grade A Numpty with no brains.

@WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo

They could stop all this by just charging the fuckers.

Exactly! This could all be stopped, easily.

I can’t believe how much energy people on here are giving to the alleged ‘criminality’ of the looters.

Have a think about why Black people are called looters while Hong Kong folk doing the same thing a few weeks ago were called democracy protestors. It’s fucking disgusting. What’s playing out in US cities is an organised protest targeting non-Black owned, exploitative businesses in the area, and institutions of the racist police state.

It’s conscious, and rational, and informed by 400 years of humiliation, brutality, and knowledge of the futility of peaceful protest in the whole supremacist hell zone that is the USA. It is informed by some very sophisticated political theory.

If you are stupid or flat out racist enough to suggest that ANY Black American’s actions right now will somehow be the cause of their own economic deprivation and ‘food deserts’, from the safety of your comfortable little white homes, than I honestly think you are a disgustingly ignorant person and a part of the problem. Pearl-clutching, victim-blaming at its worst.

What @WhoWants2Know said.

Nothing much has been said at all about the black people who are trying to clear the mess the looters have made its all about the looters 🙄

I hope Twitter ban him from their platform. That will hurt his ego a hell of a lot more than being impeached.

While this would be a great blow to him in theory, this would mean the thoughts he spews on twitter would be spewed behind the scenes unchecked, leaving the general public unaware.

At least this way they know what is going on in his head and can be informed and prepared for the fallout he inevitably causes every time he flexes his muscles.

If anybody has access to CNN the camera crew have just been arrested live on tv for filming what's currently happening in Minnesota no.explanation given .

whatwouldyoudo I’ve read that they can’t charge them (with murder) until they get the autopsy and that. I read a much more detailed explanation but I don’t have the time to type it out.

He is the one that will start ww3, He is letting people in his country die as an excuse to start war on China

Blacks in the USA can be murdered by the cops with impunity but we want the looters arrested?

We elected our very own version of trump, they are pals and it was DT that Johnson turned to with the CV crisis, not a more rational european leader, perhaps Merkel, for support and advice, Johnson is also a racist himself.

But in both countries, under their respective systems, its what the "people" want and still admire.

I'd riot too, if my fathers, brothers and young sons were being brutally murdered in the bright sunshine by racist cops.

There are plenty of messy, attempted white working class uprisings in Europe's past, before too many eyes cast askance at the idea of "riots".

However, the protestors would do better to take this to privileged neighbourhoods. Until they make this a "white problem", a big one, nothing will change.

I remember how (much more low-key) London riots. All the appliance shops got emptied first.
Let's not pretend that looting doesn't happen when there are protests. Of course something should be done.

Pretending everyone is a looter is as stupid as pretending everyone needs protection from looters and rioters...

I think the angle taken by some that "the looters are opportunistic criminals" is not a constructive one. Of course there will be opportunistic criminals within them, but when poverty and lack of opportunity is so entrenched in your particular section of society, looting is making a political statement tantamount to holding a placard or starting a protest chant.

You just need to look at hip hop culture (itself a medium for oppressed POC) and the associated bling to see what the ownership of of material goods represents to those who are repeatedly told, either directly or indirectly through society's perception of them, that they are not deserving or successful enough to own such things.

I would be scared to live in the US right now.