LOOMING THREAT
‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’: What does Trump’s tweet mean and where did it come from?
PRESIDENT Trump issued a warning early Friday about the Minneapolis riots, tweeting that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
made after protesters torched a police station and destroyed other property, capping several days of violence linked to the death of .
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What does Trump's tweet 'when the looting starts the shooting starts' mean?
Trump said in a series of tweets that he would bring in the National Guard and "get the job done right" if "Radical Left" Mayor Jacob Frey in .
"These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen," tweeted Trump.
"Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way.
"Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"
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Twitter said the president violated rules about glorifying violence, and a warning was placed on the tweet.
The White House reposted Trump's “shooting starts” message on its official Twitter account Friday morning.
Additionally, White House social media director Dan Scavino turned the tweets into an image that he tweeted out as well.
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Trump said Thursday that he felt "very, very badly" about Floyd's death and called what happened to him "a very shocking sight."
The president has often been silent on police involved shootings, but he has been vocal about Floyd's death this week.
Trump “was very upset when he saw that video," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday.
“He wants justice to be served.”
Where did that phrase originate from?
The disturbing comment was believed to be originally made by Miami police chief Walter Headley in 1967.
A UPI article read: "Headley said Miami hasn't been troubled with racial disturbances and looting because he let the word filter down, 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts.'"
Floyd McKissick, head of the Congress of Racial Equality, accused Headley of “setting up the first fascist state of Miami,” according to UPI.
Added Phil Johnson, a Miami poverty program worker: “If you want to have a riot, let ’em start stopping and frisking and shooting people.”
What happened to George Floyd?
George Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis police officers on Monday after they responded to a report of a Chauvin was filmed placing his knee on Floyd's neck while he was on the ground.
Floyd later passed away and it was revealed he did not have a pulse when he was treated in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
have erupted in the city since the death of Floyd and many people are invoking the who once said, "In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard."
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," King once said. The profound statement by King has been trending on Twitter.
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