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.

For the President of the United States to make such a racist, inflammatory statement is beyond shocking. Trump, the gift that keeps on shitting all over everything.

If I was black and in America right now, my anger would be boundless. I would want to burn it to the ground.

The "forgery" was him passing, possibly unknowingly, a forged $10 note?

Indeed. More than that though, even if he had (hypothetically) deliberately passed out tens of thousands worth of forged bills that day he still wouldn't deserve to be executed or murdered in the street by those meant to protect and defend society.

The sad truth is that in the USA black lives don't matter. Leaders of the free world my hairy arse.

And shame on anyone who lets talk of looting (spurious accusations or real incidents) distract from the issue at hand.
Stop expecting every single last black person to be fucking perfect before you offer your solidarity.

Dreaming said "change", not "improve"! (And I hope we can all agree that the American Civil War was incredibly complex. I don't think any sane person can deny that it was in part - a large part - about slavery. But the recent push towards saying "actually it was about State's rights" can actually be dated to historical revisionism which originally surfaced in the early part of the 20th century, as a cover for and smokescreen for the racism of the south - it's incidentally when a lot of the statues to Confederate war generals were erected, not in the immediate aftermath of the war).

I think the French would argue that the French revolution improved the peasants' lot.

Uniting a country is appealing to all people across the political divide to put party politics aside and work for the greater good of a nation

Wise words, MintyMabel, but that's not politics - it's statesmanship

And unfortunately we don't have too many statesmen and women around at the moment

Peaceful protests do fuck all! It’s time for action now, the world is watching. Black people deserve to feel safe, to walk down the street without having to worry about being murdered because of their skin colour.

Trump is a tit.
He is mentally unstable in a dangerous way.
I can’t believe he hasn’t been sacked by America yet.

Also looting rhymes with shooting.
That’s about the extent of Trumps cognitive development.

Riots, police brutality, looting... all of it is a consequence of racist oppression.

White policemen kill young black and women with impunity in the US. This latest killing was no better than a modern day lynching.

And you want to whine about people taking some things from shops?

Where on earth is your sense of perspective. This idea of six of one, half a dozen of the other, is offensive.

One woman's terrorist is another woman's freedom fighter.

And those violent revolutions worked out so well, didn't they? The first got you the American Civil War (contrary to popular mythology, not remotely about slavery), Vietnam, and Trump. The last got you Stalin, the Nuclear Arms Race, and Putin. And Haiti is the poorest nation in the western world. Violence might change things, but does it improve anything?

This is all so historically ignorant, I honestly can't be bothered.

Anyone who says the US Civil War was not remotely about slavery cannot be taken seriously.

The idea that no one was any better off when monarchies and colonial rule were overthrown is ridiculous.

Maybe do some reading about why Haiti is so poor. Hint: it's not Toussaint Louverture's fault.

For those that think that rioting is the way to go, one simple question - what positive outcome do you expect it to achieve. Any positive outcome? Will black people be any more free, any less exploited, any safer, any better educated or better off? If they wish to organise a revolution, then that requires more than a few days of mindless violence that achieves a new tv for the apartment....

I don’t agree with protesting, but I also don’t agree with you placing the blame solely on black people as if it’s a homogeneous community with a leader who organises it all. The looters are a mix of races, but the media likes to focus on the black ones. I also don’t agree with you seemingly putting the onus on a minority group to solve a massive problem made, perpetuated and accepted by the majority group. A positive outcome went out of the window when it was decided once again and for the umpteenth time that simply firing the police officers was enough instead of charging them and sending them to jail when you know if a citizen did this they would be in jail. Once again, police who should be held to a much higher standard than the average citizen are allowed to get away with murder.

There have been peaceful protests about police brutality against black people and riots, yet neither actions has stopped this from happening because the victims can’t change the behaviour of their perpetrators.

They’ve brought in the national guard, pathetic, racist twats.

I meant rioting, not protesting.

I just posted this link on another thread, but it's relevant here:
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/states-rights/544541/

Basically, the Civil war was largely about slavery, not about states rights. To claim it was about states rights is egregious historical revisionism (quite often being used in defence of racism).

The big danger now is that Trump and other right-wing lunatics have been encouraging white nationalists for years, and their obsession with a 'race war' that will put white men 'back in charge'. People are worried that now these heavily armed white nationalists are going to start showing up wherever there are disturbances and try to actually provoke their race war. And Trump will do whatever he can to fan the flames and interfere with the election, as polls are not looking good for him right now.

It's an incredibly dangerous time.

@Moondust001"But there is nothing conscious, rational or informed about mindless violence and destruction - whoever does it."

Have you ever bothered to read any Black Marxist theory or intersectional Black feminism? I'd guess not.

To call it mindless IS FUCKING RACIST

It has been proven how white police officers have started fires around the city to blame the protestors. They targeted affordable housing.

The American Civil War was about secession and states rights, but the reason for the states seceeding was slavery.

Lincoln's call to general emancipation came during the war and was a tactical move as much as a moral precept.

Czar Alexander III freed the serfs in Russia in 1863.

What people often fail to recognise is that Trump is actually a master at vocalising the things that many people think but are too "polite" to say.
He's YOUR master, clearly.

The 'Arab Spring' kicked off with the self-immolation of one Tunisian fruit vendor. Governments fell, wars began. It was one individual act that lit the tinder.

The French Revolution depended heavily on 'the mob'. One of the most important events was when 10,000 hungry women marched from Paris to Versailles to beg the king for bread. It all kicked off, a mob invaded the palace, nearly killed the queen, and dragged the royal family back to Paris. That was the beginning of the end for them.

There is no one path to revolutionary change. It can be violent or non-violent, an organised armed struggle or mob violence.

The looters may not be what we think of as revolutionaries, but they are one part of an enormous pent-up demand for radical change in the US. If the only thing you can think to say about all this is 'looting is bad' then you are missing the whole point.

It has been proven how white police officers have started fires around the city to blame the protestors. They targeted affordable housing.

Yes, I've seen that. Undercover officers setting off fires

It has been proven how white police officers have started fires around the city to blame the protestors. They targeted affordable housing

I'd be interested to see that; do you have any links please?