[ggggtez]

>In 1967, Miami police Chief Walter Headley used the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" during hearings about crime in the Florida city, invoking angry reactions from civil rights leaders, according to a news report at the time.

> Segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace also used the phrase during the 1968 campaign.

While you might like to believe that the phrase could mean anything, it certainly doesn't. And in the context of Trumps tweet, which specifically mentions the military, it certainly means that he was threatening to have the US military fire on US civilians.

Now consider that in the context of the US threatening action against China using "tough" tactics to subdue protests in Hong Kong and you'll see the tweet for what it is. The same kind of rhetoric and threat of violence against protesters that the US condemns elsewhere in the world.

[Lammy]

I prefer to live in the word where that man’s freedom of speech in 1967 means we get to remember and appreciate the progress we fight for. Censorship helps those who already have the most power by giving them an easy way to maintain it.

[scohesc]

Yes, because never before have those words (or a variation of them) been spoken at all ever since they were uttered in 1967.

Give me a break.

[drewrv]

That "the president is too dumb to understand the context of his words" is not a strong defense.

[koheripbal]

The concept of "looters will be shot" has been used outside race related riots.

Are we going to debate every tweet's historical usage?

Should we start looking at AOC's or Bernie Sanders' uses of the word "revolution" in their tweets too?