When the looting starts, the shooting starts#Donald Trump

Chief Walter Headley was characterized in The Miami Report about the 1968 Miami riot for the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence as a "strong-minded, hardworking police chief" who "carried virtually unchanged into the late 1960s policies of dealing with minority groups which had been applied in Miami in the 1930s and even earlier".{{cite report |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001874299 |title=Miami Report: The report of the Miami Study Team on civil disturbances in Miami, Florida during the week of August 5, 1968 |author1=Hector, Louis J. |author2= Helliwell, Paul L.E. |date=January 15, 1969 |publisher=National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence |access-date=June 4, 2020}}{{rp|2}} This was an apparent reference to policies promulgated by Headley's predecessor, Chief H. Leslie Quigg.{{efn|As an example, Quigg was indicted in 1928 after three Miami police officers beat Harry Kier, a Black bellboy, to death for allegedly insulting a white woman at the hotel where he worked.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/03/03/archives/miami-chief-accused-in-a-police-lynching-detectives-testify-he.html |title=Miami Chief Accused in a Police Lynching; Detectives Testify He Ordered Body Hidden When Negro Was Shot Down by Another. |date=March 3, 1928 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=subscription |access-date=June 5, 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theonlyfredsmith.com/post/2019/08/16/the-1980-miami-riots-were-the-blueprint-for-la-s-in-92 |title=The 1980 Miami Riots were the Blueprint for LA's in '92 |author=Smith, Fred |date=August 16, 2019 |website=A Crack in the Room Tone |access-date=June 5, 2020}} Although he was taken into custody in late March,{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCEN19280324.1.2 |agency=AP |title=Miami Police Chief With Six of His Subordinates Land in County Jail on Charges of Wholesale Murder |date=March 24, 1928 |newspaper=Santa Cruz News |access-date=June 5, 2020}} the criminal charges were dismissed by May because the witness did not testify.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19280519.1.4 |title=Charges Dismissed |date=May 18, 1928 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 5, 2020}}}} Howard University political science professor Clarence Lusane stated that Chief Headley "had a long history of bigotry against the Black community".

{{See also|Long, hot summer of 1967}}

{{Quote box

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| quote = {{pad|0.8em}}"We don't mind being accused of police brutality. They haven't seen anything yet.
{{pad|0.8em}}"Ninety per cent of our Negro population is law abiding and wants to eliminate our crime problem. But 10 per cent are young hoodlums who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign.
{{pad|0.8em}}"Community relations and all that sort of thing has failed. We have done everything we could, sending speakers out and meeting with Negro leaders. But it has amounted to nothing.
{{pad|0.8em}}"We haven't had any serious problems with civil uprising and looting because I've let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts. These are my orders: Not three days after, but now.
{{pad|0.8em}}"This is war. I meant it, every bit of it."

| author =  — Chief Walter E. Headley, Miami Police Department

| source = press conference (December 26, 1967).{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19671227.1.1 |title=Miami's Get Tough Policy With Negro Criminals |agency=AP |date=December 27, 1967 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |access-date=June 3, 2020}}

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During the civil unrest in the United States that occurred during the long, hot summer of 1967, which were in part racially motivated, several nascent riots in Dade County, Florida, were stopped before they could start through the effort of local community leaders.{{rp|2–3}} However, law enforcement personnel began to prepare for further violence, as the causes of the unrest were never addressed and promises made by leaders went unfulfilled.{{rp|3}}

The first known use of the phrase was in a press conference held by Miami's police chief, Walter Headley, on December 26, 1967. Headly announced that six three-man teams of officers equipped with "shotguns and dogs" would respond to the "young hoodlums" from "Negro districts" in Miami with lethal force{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19671228.1.1 |title=Miami's 'War' On Slum Crime Draws Protests |agency=UPI |date=December 28, 1967 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603191108/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19671228.1.1 |url-status=dead }} and stated "his men have been told that any force, up to and including death, is proper when apprehending a felon".{{cite news |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article243084721.html |title=Trump's tweet was flagged for 'glorifying violence'. A Miami police chief said it first |first=Howard |last=Cohen |date=May 29, 2020 |work=The Miami Herald |access-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530022901/https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article243084721.html |archive-date=May 30, 2020 |url-status=live }} In a pithy soundbite during the post-statement interview with reporters, Headley claimed that Miami had avoided "civil uprising and looting" because he had "let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts".{{cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-wallace-looting-quote/ |title=Did Trump and George Wallace Both Say, 'When the Looting Starts, the Shooting Starts'? |first=Dan |last=Evon |date=May 29, 2020 |work=Snopes}}{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19671228.2.19 |title=Florida Governor Backs Miami Police in Hoodlum Crackdown |agency=UPI |date=December 28, 1967 |newspaper=The Desert Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020}}

Headley stated: "Felons are going to learn that they can't be bonded out from the morgue."{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19671230.1.2 |title=Big City Police Deciding to Be Tough on Rioters Next Summer |first=Hal |last=Cooper |date=December 30, 1967 |agency=AP |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020}} Florida Governor Claude Kirk expressed his support for Headley's tactics: "Let them all know they will be dealt with [harshly]. We have the weapons to defeat crime. Not to use them is a crime in itself." Headley added "we don't mind being accused of police brutality." In a follow-up press conference, Headley refused to say whether the policy of shooting looters would only be applied to Blacks, given his previous stances, leading to a heightened state of fear among the Black communities of Miami.{{rp|3}}

A paraphrased version of his December 1967 remarks was quoted in his 1968 Miami Herald obituary: "There is only one way to handle looters and arsonists during a riot and that is to shoot them on sight. I've let the word filter down — when the looting starts, the shooting starts."{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52395345/headley-1968/ |title='Tough Cop' Headley Dies at 63 |date=November 17, 1968 |newspaper=The Miami Herald |access-date=June 3, 2020}} Anecdotes were shared that City of Miami police officers had started aggressively enforcing its stop-and-frisk law by stopping Black males in public with no pretext, calling them belittling or racist epithets, then demanding identification and their purpose.{{rp|3}} Three weeks after the new policy started, Chief Headley declared that it had caused the violent crime rate to fall by 60%.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/01/15/archives/crimes-of-violence-in-miami-slums-fall-by-60-results-reported-in.html |title=Crimes of Violence in Miami Slums Fall by 60%; Results Reported in 3 Week 'Get Tough' Police Drive |date=January 15, 1968 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=subscription |access-date=June 3, 2020}} In contrast to the continuous harassment by Miami police officers, the Dade County Public Safety Department built relationships between its deputy sheriffs and the Black community; although both the City of Miami and Dade County were judged to have effectively maintained order, the Miami Police Department were perceived to have revived prior racist policies.{{rp|4}}

According to Lusane, Headley might have actually borrowed the phrase from infamous Birmingham, Alabama, police chief Bull Connor. Connor had declared in 1963 he would use dogs and fire hoses to quell unrest.{{cite news |url=https://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=1310 |title=Bull Connor Statement |date=June 11, 1963 |work=NBC Archival Film |access-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-date=June 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614141227/https://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=1310 |url-status=dead }}

{{See also|1968 Miami riot}}

In August 1968, riots broke out in Miami, at the time of the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. The first riot started in the Liberty City area on August 7 at approximately 6:30 p.m., marking the first major incident since Headley's get-tough policing policy had been announced in December 1967.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19680808.1.1 |title=Police at Black Rally Set Off Miami Riot |agency=AP |date=August 8, 1968 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020}} [https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19680808.1.2 continuation, page A-2] Black organizations had called for a noontime mass rally for "Blacks Only", attracted by rumors that Ralph Abernathy and Wilt Chamberlain would be speaking. As the crowd grew that afternoon, police responded and became the target of the crowd's ire.{{rp|8–9}} Traffic controls were enforced at 5 p.m. and the rally turned violent after the driver of a car with the sticker "George Wallace for President" blundered into the roadblocks, panicked, and abandoned the car, which was subsequently flipped and set ablaze.{{rp|10–11}} {{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/05/29/when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts-trump-walter-headley/ |title='When the looting starts, the shooting starts': Trump quotes Miami police chief's notorious 1967 warning |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Michael S. |last=Rosenwald |date=May 29, 2020 |access-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529190549/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/05/29/when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts-trump-walter-headley/ |archive-date=May 29, 2020 |url-status=live }} Rioting and looting was quieted by the police by 8:15 p.m., without significant incident.{{rp|12}} Politicians (including the Mayor of Miami, Stephen P. Clark; Mayor of Metropolitan Dade County, Charles Hall; Governor Kirk; and Ralph Abernathy) arrived and urged the crowd to negotiate peacefully, and with the officials' promise to meet to hear the community's grievances at 11 a.m. on August 8, the crowd dispersed.{{rp|14}}

{{quotebox |text={{pad|0.8em}}It is not unfair to characterize the Headley policy as one of keeping an underprivileged and restless minority orderly and cowed by a constant visual display of force in its more ominous and symbolic forms, e.g., shotguns and police dogs, coupled with frequent harshly-executed acts of stopping and frisking or stopping for questioning, and whether consciously planned or not, occasional acts of brutality. Quite apart from more basic legal and ethical problems, the greatest failings of this policy are that it creates grievances which can accumulate until they actually cause a riot and that the training and equipping of police for the application of such a policy does not prepare them to cope with a major riot once it starts. We are not convinced that police dogs and shotguns can be used to quell a riot without widespread indiscriminate and useless bloodshed and simultaneously sowing the seeds for future disturbances. And once a riot starts, police dogs sitting in their mobile cages or shotguns sticking out of the windows of police cars — the most usual modes of display — will have little or no effect on the rioters.
{{pad|0.8em}} [...] We think, in short, that the use of instruments of terror to hold potential disturbances in check eventually fails to hold them in check and then is of little or no use in quelling a disturbance once it starts. |source=Miami Report (1969){{rp|26–27}} |align=right |width=30em}}

After the politicians reneged on their promise, the riot reignited on August 8.{{rp|15}} That day, in two separate incidents, two Black adults were killed by gunfire in Liberty City in the afternoon,{{rp|16}} then another was killed in the Central Negro District just before midnight.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19680809.1.1 |title=Gun Battles Erupt in Miami Area |first=Austin |last=Scott |agency=AP |date=August 9, 1968 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020}} [https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19680809.1.8 continuation, page A-8] A New York Times article published November 29, 1970, blamed Headley's approach for "three dead and a score wounded" during the riots. Headley was on vacation in the North Carolina mountains during the riots and refused to return to Miami, asserting that "my officers know what to do. They can handle the situation."{{cite news |title=Walter Headley of Miami Dies; Controversial Police Chief, 63 His tough law enforcement measures angered civil rights leaders |location=Miami|date=November 16, 1968 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/11/17/archives/walter-headley-of-miami-dies-controversial-police-chief-63-his.html|url-access=subscription |access-date=May 31, 2020}} The same article from 1970 also stated that Headley had repeated the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" during the 1968 Miami riots, although contemporary coverage only brought up that line as Headley's stated policy from the December 1967 press conference. The Miami Report squarely blamed Headley's policies for exacerbating the violence of the riots.{{rp|26–27}}

Following Headley's death in 1968, the "hardline-policy chief of the old school" was replaced by Chief Bernard L. Garmire, as part of an "attempt at racial introspection" which had included consulting a federally-funded social science study to examine what "engenders" white police officers' deep "fear and hatred of Blacks".{{Cite news| issn = 0362-4331| first = Richard D.| last = Lyons| series = Special to The New York| title = Miami Police Study Hints Bigotry Arises Early From Slum Duty| work = The New York Times | date = November 29, 1970 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/29/archives/miami-police-study-hints-bigotry-arises-early-from-slum-duty.html | access-date = May 31, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180318011653/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/29/archives/miami-police-study-hints-bigotry-arises-early-from-slum-duty.html| archive-date = March 18, 2018| url-status = live}} In 1971, Garmire put 24 police dog units on full-time duty to combat "the specter of urban guerrilla warfare", adding that he had not rescinded Headley's order to carry shotguns, but denied that he would be adopting his predecessor's philosophies: "There will be no promiscuous shooting or turning of dogs on people."{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19710320.1.11 |title=Miami's Chief Unleashes Two Dozen Attack Dogs |agency=AP |date=March 20, 1971 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=June 3, 2020}}

Headley's comment and policy were the subject of congressional testimony about the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots in a question asked by congressman John Dowdy to police chief Patrick V. Murphy.{{Cite book|last=Columbia|first=United States Congress House District of|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDuBdrwBLusC&pg=RA1-PA20|title=Civil Disturbances in Washington: Hearings...90-2, Investigating the April 1968 Rioting, Looting, Damages and Losses, and Police Actions, and H.R. 16941, H.E. 16948, H.R. 18541, H.R. 17647, H.R. 17607, and H.R. 18149, May and July, 1968|date=1968|language=en}}

Chief Headley's justifications of deadly force against rioters were echoed by other nationally prominent politicians, including presidential candidate George Wallace (in 1967/68), Philadelphia police commissioner Frank Rizzo (1968), and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (1968).

Wallace's speeches during his 1968 Presidential campaign were widely publicized to contain similar sentiments as early as September 1967.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52393672/the-los-angeles-times/ |title=Wallace Would End Rioting With Bullets |author=Nelson, Jack |date=September 10, 1967 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=June 5, 2020}}{{cite news |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/lima-news-jan-29-1968-p-2/ |author=Steward, Hal D. |title=Guns-To-End-Riots Reaps Votes, Foes |date=January 29, 1968 |newspaper=Lima News |access-date=June 5, 2020 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/31806683/ |author=Steward, Hal D. |title=George Wallace, His White House Chances |date=February 25, 1968 |newspaper=Independent Star-News |access-date=June 5, 2020 |url-access=subscription}}

Journalist John Pilger published an interview with Wallace in 1986, which Pilger dated to summer 1968. During the interview, Wallace said he would issue orders similar to Headley's, authorizing deadly force against looters: "Nigra or white starts lootin' and bam, bam, I'd have 'em shot on the spot. Yessuh, there'd be orders to shoot to kill if anyone so much as hurls a rock at a police officer. 'Don't shoot any chillun,' I'd tell 'em. 'Just shoot that adult standin' beside the kid that throws the rock.' That may not prevent the burnin' and lootin' but it sure will stop it after it starts."{{cite book |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/heroesjohnpilger0000pilg/page/134/ |title=Heroes |author=Pilger, John |author-link=John Pilger |date=1986 |publisher=Pan Books |location=London |isbn=0-89608-666-6 |chapter=12. Saviours: George |pages=131–139 |chapter-url-access=registration}}{{rp|134}}

{{quotebox |align=right |width=30em |text={{pad|0.8em}}"Any big city that doesn't have enough manpower to move in fast, in numbers, is in real trouble. Of course, if you move in and just stand there, the numbers do you no good. Tell the crowd to disperse; give them fair warning. But if they don't obey, they should be taken on, immediately. The man to go after is the one that shouts 'Burn!' or 'Loot!' He has to be taken on, and taken on good, and put right in short pants.
{{pad|0.8em}}"There's no place in our form of government for a riot, for insurrection, for anarchy. Nobody's going to loot a city here. Nobody's going to sack a city. That's a promise.
{{pad|0.8em}}"... There will be no backing off of police here. Force will be used. The real troublemakers cannot be satisfied. They just take attempts to meet their demands as a form of weakness. You have to meet them with absolute force.
{{pad|0.8em}}"... All I can say is that the first bottle thrown, the first brick thrown, the first Molotov cocktail, the first time police are fired on, force will be met with force—and I'm tired of hearing this 'just a little bit more force.' If they fire on us, I assure you we won’t use the least amount of force. We have to use force just as the Army does. It's war. But I don't think we will ever need federal troops. We're becoming familiar with guerrilla tactics, and we have the weapons to fight a war. I consider myself an expert in city warfare, and I don't know of any problem we can't handle. We may have a riot here, but it will be the shortest riot in history." |author= — Commissioner Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia Police Department |source=quoted in Esquire (March 1968){{cite magazine |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1968/3/1/the-second-civil-war |title=The Second Civil War |url-access=subscription |author=Wills, Garry |author-link=Garry Wills |date=March 1968 |magazine=Esquire |access-date=7 June 2020}}}}

Although Frank Rizzo was credited by President Donald Trump with coining the phrase or "an expression like that" in a 2020 interview with Harris Faulkner, Rizzo never said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."{{cite news |url=https://deadline.com/2020/06/donald-trump-fox-news-harris-faulkner-george-floyd-1202957428/ |title=Fox News Anchor Harris Faulkner Presses Donald Trump On Use Of Phrase 'When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts' |author=Johnson, Ted |date=June 11, 2020 |work=Deadline |access-date=12 June 2020}} Rizzo served as the police commissioner of Philadelphia from 1967 to 1971, then resigned to run a successful campaign for mayor that year, serving from 1972 with a second term, until 1980. He was noted for his strict policies to prevent riots: "Hoodlums have no license to burn and sack Philadelphia in the name of civil liberties and civil rights activities."{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19680204.1.5 |title=Philly's Tough Cop |agency=AP |date=February 4, 1968 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |access-date=7 June 2020}} Rizzo further explained his preventive tactics, which included stationing snipers on rooftops and deploying anti-riot squads armed with shotguns and machine guns, in an article published in the March 1968 issue of Esquire written by Garry Wills. One key to Rizzo's tactics was keeping police officers on standby for rapid deployment if necessary, which met with great approval from his peers. Another aspect was Rizzo's willingness to use "absolute force" to suppress riots. Rizzo's policy on quelling riots was paraphrased and quoted in the report Firearms, Violence, and Civil Disorders (1968).{{cite report |url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Photocopy/11802NCJRS.pdf |title=Firearms, Violence, and Civil Disorders |publisher=Stanford Research Institute, under commission to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders |date=July 1968 |author1=Kotz, Arnold |author2=Hair, Harold |author3=Scales, John K. |access-date=7 June 2020}}{{rp|44}}

His policies were credited with preventing serious rioting in Philadelphia during the summer of 1967, while cities with a similar proportion of Black Americans, such as Detroit and Newark, were affected. The next year, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. all experienced significant riots in April 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a contemporary analysis by Drew Pearson gave credit to "one of the toughest cops in the USA", Commissioner Frank Rizzo, and his "well integrated" police force for preventing similar rioting in Philadelphia.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19680412.2.87 |title=Washington Merry-Go-Round: Cities Suffered Delayed Police Force Integration |author=Pearson, Drew |author-link=Drew Pearson (journalist) |date=April 12, 1968 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=7 June 2020}}

Rizzo also was accused of encouraging brutal police tactics, which he denied: "I don't believe in police brutality and 99 per cent of the police have no part of it. Sure, there are isolated cases when a cop goes overboard, but who knows the right amount of force to use—and when?" Rizzo later clarified: "Our policemen are cool-headed professionals. We only use sufficient force."{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19681006.1.8 |title=How Cops Keep Their Cool: Top Police Talk Of Teamwork, Temperance |author=Grove, Noel |agency=NEA |date=October 6, 1968 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |access-date=7 June 2020}} However, the club-swinging police action led by Rizzo that broke up the November 1967 Philadelphia student demonstration{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19671118.1.5 |title=4,000 Negroes Riot at School in Philadelphia |agency=UPI |date=November 18, 1967 |newspaper=San Bernardino Sun |access-date=7 June 2020}} resulted in a suit which alleged that excessive force had been used.{{cite court |vol=281 |reporter=F.Supp. |opinion=720 |litigants=Heard v. Rizzo |date=1968 |court=E.D. Pa. |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/281/720/1575370/}} The suit would be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.{{cite court |vol=392 |reporter=U.S. |opinion=646 |litigants=Heard v. Rizzo |date=1968 |court=US |url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1334841/heard-v-rizzo/}}

Mayor Richard J. Daley ordered police to shoot arsonists and looters during the 1968 Chicago riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. Daley did not use the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts", but stated to Police Superintendent James B. Conlisk "very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued under [your] signature to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail, and shoot anyone looting stores in our city". Upon hearing that Conlisk had directed patrolmen to use their own discretion, Daley remarked "I would assume any superintendent would issue orders to shoot any arsonist on sight{{nbsp}}... an arsonist is a murderer and should be shot right on the spot. The looters—you wouldn't want to shoot the youngsters—but you can shoot them and detain them."{{cite news |url=http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/articles/april%2015.pdf |title=Daley Orders 'Shoot to Kill' For Arson |author=Golden Jr., Harry |date=April 16, 1968 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=June 4, 2020}}

Chief Headley supported Daley's position: "That could have been me talking."{{cite news |title=Headley: 'Arsonist Should Be Shot' |author=Buchanan, Jim |date=April 18, 1968 |newspaper=The Miami Herald}} (republished in Appendices to [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001874299 the Miami Report]) However, Headley was reprimanded for his remarks of support and later clarified that he was strictly talking about the response to riots in Chicago, not general policing in Miami,{{cite news |title=Headley Denies Shoot-Kill Policy |author1=Gow, Gary |author2=Sosin, Milt |date=May 2, 1968 |newspaper=The Miami Herald}} (republished in Appendices to [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001874299 the Miami Report]) and said that his officers had been instructed to "shoot when necessary". Looters, he said "should be given the opportunity to surrender to arrest" and if the looter resists, "anything it takes, including death, [should be used] to apprehend them."{{cite news |title=Headley Tempers Get-Tough Policy |author1=Petit, Mike |date=May 3, 1968 |newspaper=The Miami Herald}} (republished in Appendices to [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001874299 the Miami Report])

Chicago under Daley also saw police violence soon after amid the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity.

{{See also|1980 Miami riots|1992 Los Angeles riots}}

The 1980 Miami riots erupted in the Liberty City area after four white police officers were acquitted on charges of manslaughter. The four were part of the group that had beaten Black motorcyclist Arthur Lee McDuffie to death in December 1979 following a high-speed chase; they had initially covered up their role in his killing by reporting his injuries were caused by a traffic accident.{{cite news |url=https://www.wlrn.org/post/forty-years-after-arthur-mcduffie-was-killed-miami-dade-police-his-family-honored-ceremony#stream/0 |title=Forty Years After Arthur McDuffie Was Killed By Miami-Dade Police, His Family Honored In Ceremony |author=Green, Nadege |date=February 5, 2020 |work=WLRN |access-date=7 June 2020}} Photographic coverage of the riots in the Miami Herald included armed National Guardsmen, vigilantes, and business owners defending properties from looters.{{cite web |url=http://flashbackmiami.com/2014/05/07/mcduffie-riots-1980/ |title=McDuffie Riots, 1980 |website=Flashback Miami |publisher=Miami Herald |access-date=7 June 2020}} In 1989, former Miami mayor Maurice Ferré was interviewed for the documentary film Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965 to 1985; during the interview, he partially blamed the attitude instilled by Chief Headley for both the armed vigilantes and the police force's inability to suppress the McDuffie riots: "There's a tradition that goes back to Chief Walter Headley whose famous statement — famous in this community and the State of Florida — is when the looting starts, the shooting starts. That's the tradition. This was a southern city which is what Miami was up until the arrival of the Cubans in 1960. And this community has changed totally. But the mentality of that police department continues; it has life, it has a history."{{cite interview |url=http://digital.wustl.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eop;cc=eop;rgn=main;view=text;idno=fer5427.0705.050 |title=Interview for Eyes on the Prize II |subject=Maurice Ferré |interviewer=Blackside, Inc. |date=March 21, 1989 |publisher=Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection}}

During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, approximately half the property damage was sustained by businesses owned by immigrants from South Korea; because Koreatown had largely been abandoned by the police, local business owners armed themselves to defend their businesses.{{cite interview |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/04/27/151526930/korean-store-owner-on-arming-himself-for-riots |title=Korean Store Owner On Arming Himself For Riots |subject=Kee Whan Ha |date=April 27, 2012 |interviewer=Michel Martin |work=Tell Me More |publisher=NPR |access-date=7 June 2020}}{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/28/us/la-riots-korean-americans/index.html |title=The LA riots were a rude awakening for Korean-Americans |author=Lah, Kyung |date=April 29, 2017 |work=CNN |access-date=7 June 2020}}

File:NOEast18Ap06YouLootWeShootMazda.jpg

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina (2005), Ike (2008), Sandy (2012), and Harvey (2017),{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/25/hurricane-harvey-houston-recovery-effort |title=Houston after Harvey: city faces huge hurdle to recovery |author=Dart, Tom |date=September 25, 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=3 August 2020}} would-be robbers were warned that vigilante deadly force would be used for property crimes through hand-painted signs that read "you loot, we shoot". Authorization of deadly force by police officers following natural disasters dates back at least as far as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when Mayor Eugene Schmitz declared "The federal troops, which are now policing a portion of the city, as well as the regular and special members of the police force, have been authorized by me to kill any persons whomsoever, found engaged in looting the effects of any citizen or otherwise engaged in the commission of crime."{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HJD19060419.2.24& |title=Mayor's Proclamation |date=April 19, 1906 |newspaper=Hanford Daily Journal |access-date=3 August 2020}}

Reports of vigilantes shooting black Americans in New Orleans during the aftermath of Katrina had circulated since 2005, most notably centered on the Algiers Point neighborhood.{{cite news |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/katrinas-hidden-race-war/ |title=Katrina's Hidden Race War |date=December 17, 2008 |url-access=limited |author=Thompson, A.C. |work=The Nation |access-date=3 August 2020}} In 2010, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that officers of the New Orleans Police Department had been authorized to shoot looters, although none of the officers involved in 11 civilian shootings cited that order in their defense.{{cite news |url=https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_d561ff1d-7eb1-520e-b8fd-a87b5aca0b8a.html |title=New Orleans cops say they got orders authorizing them to shoot looters in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina |author1=Shankman, Sabrina |author2=Jennings, Tom |author3=McCarthy, Brendan |author4=Maggi, Laura |author5=Thompson, A.C. |date=August 25, 2010 |newspaper=The Times-Picayune |access-date=3 August 2020}} Mayor Ray Nagin had requested a declaration of martial law in response to reports of widespread looting,{{cite interview |subject=Ray Nagin |interviewer=Garland Robinette |date=September 1, 2005 |title=Mayor to feds; 'Get off your asses' |work=WWL News |publisher=CNN |access-date=3 August 2020 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/}} but lacked the authority to declare it.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/08/martial.law.qanda/ |title=Legal answers for New Orleans residents |date=September 8, 2005 |work=CNN Law Center |access-date=3 August 2020}}

British street artist Banksy repurposed the same phrase in a 2018 piece depicting a stockbroker fleeing the New York Stock Exchange with bundles of cash.{{cite news |url=https://streetartnews.net/2018/04/you-loot-we-shoot-banksy.html |title='You Loot, We Shoot' by Banksy in New York City |date=April 6, 2018 |work=Street Art News |access-date=3 August 2020}}

{{anchor|Donald Trump}}

{{See also|George Floyd protests}}

{{Tweet|replyto=realDonaldTrump|name=Donald J. Trump|image=Donald Trump official portrait (cropped 2).jpg|username=realDonaldTrump|date=May 29, 2020|text=....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. 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!|ID=1266231100780744704|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200529045524/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100780744704|archive-date=May 29, 2020}}

President Donald Trump used the phrase in a tweet on the evening of May 28–29, 2020,{{efn|According to the timestamp, the original tweet was posted at 12:53 a.m. EDT on May 29, 2020. President Trump tweeted again later that day to clarify the intent of the original tweet and referred to the original tweet as being made "last night".}} in response to increasingly violent nation-wide and international protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. Floyd was an African-American man killed in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white policeman who had knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.

Trump's tweet was flagged by Twitter with a "public interest notice" for "glorifying violence".{{Cite news|last=Sprunt|first=Barbara|date=May 29, 2020|title=The History Behind 'When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts'|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864818368/the-history-behind-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts|access-date=May 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530035357/https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864818368/the-history-behind-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts|archive-date=May 30, 2020|url-status=live}}{{Cite news |title=George Floyd: Trump Makes Somber Remarks : NPR |first1=Krishnadev |last1=Calamur |first2=Ayesha |last2=Rascoe |first3=Alana |last3=Wise |date=May 29, 2020 |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864722348/twitter-hides-trumps-tweet-on-minneapolis-saying-it-glorifies-violence |access-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529142544/https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864722348/twitter-hides-trumps-tweet-on-minneapolis-saying-it-glorifies-violence |archive-date=May 29, 2020 |url-status=live }} As a result, the tweet could only be seen after users acknowledged a notice saying the tweet had violated Twitter's rules against encouraging violence, but otherwise it remained visible.{{Cite news|last=Restuccia|first=Newley Purnell and Andrew|date=May 29, 2020|title=Twitter Flags Trump Tweet About George Floyd Protests for 'Glorifying Violence' |language=en-US|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-hides-trump-tweet-for-glorifying-violence-11590743851|access-date=June 3, 2020}} The original tweet was shared again that afternoon in quotation marks by the White House Twitter account.{{cite tweet |user=whitehouse |number=1266342941649506304 |date=May 29, 2020 |title='These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. 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! |access-date=June 2, 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Hern |first1=Alex |title=Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/29/twitter-hides-donald-trump-tweet-glorifying-violence |access-date=June 4, 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=May 29, 2020}} The White House's tweet was also hidden and tagged by Twitter as "glorifying violence".{{cite news |last1=Mansell |first1=William |last2=Cathey |first2=Libby |title=Twitter flags Trump, White House for 'glorifying violence' in tweets about George Floyd protests |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/twitter-flags-trump-white-house-glorifying-violence-tweet/story?id=70945228 |access-date=June 4, 2020 |work=ABC News |date=May 30, 2020}}

In the aftermath of Trump's tweet, Lori Lightfoot and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the then-mayors of Chicago and Atlanta respectively, both stated that Trump was giving a dog whistle to what they considered his racist base, authorizing the use of vigilante violence to quell rioting. According to Lightfoot: "Nobody is gonna sit and condone looting and violence. But to blanketly say as the president of the United States that you're encouraging people to be shot in the street? That’s what I'm concerned about and, frankly, everyone should be concerned about that. That's not leadership. That's cowardice. That's playing to a base with the biggest dog whistle possible."{{cite news |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2020/5/29/21274941/mayor-lori-lightfoot-responds-president-trump-threat-minneapolis-protesters-with-coded-vulgarity |title=Lightfoot responds to Trump's tweet on Minneapolis protesters: 'It begins with F and ends with YOU.' |author=Spielman, Fran |date=May 29, 2020 |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=June 3, 2020}} Bottoms compared Trump's tweet to the ones Trump had made in the wake of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, adding: "He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet and I wish that he would just be quiet."{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/keisha-lance-bottoms-president-trump-cnntv/index.html |title=Atlanta mayor on Trump: 'He should just stop talking' |author=Duster, Chandelis |date=May 31, 2020 |work=CNN politics |access-date=June 3, 2020}} Kentucky governor Andy Beshear called on Trump to retract the original tweet.{{cite news |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/nday/date/2020-05-29/segment/06 |title=CNN Crew Arrested Live on TV; Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) is Interviewed about Protests in Kentucky; States Report on Coronavirus Numbers. |date=May 29, 2020 |work=New Day |publisher=CNN |access-date=June 4, 2020}}

Trump later characterized the original tweet as a warning that looters pose the risk of being shot, not as a command to shoot looters.{{cite tweet |user=realDonaldTrump |number=1266434153932894208 |date=May 29, 2020 |title=Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night – or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means.... |access-date=June 3, 2020}}{{cite tweet |user=realDonaldTrump |number=1266434155543506945 |date=May 29, 2020 |title=....It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It's very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!' |access-date=June 3, 2020}}{{cite news |url=https://deadline.com/2020/05/donald-trump-tries-to-explain-looting-leads-to-shooting-tweet-news-conference-1202946803/ |title=Donald Trump Says He Spoke To Family Of George Floyd, Tries To explain 'When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts' Tweet — Update |author=Johnson, Ted |date=May 29, 2020 |work=Deadline |access-date=June 4, 2020}} On the evening of May 29, after speaking with Floyd's family, he struck a more somber tone. He said that he was not aware of the phrase's "racially-charged history", adding that he did not know where the phrase had originated, and that his intent in using it was to say "when there's looting, people get shot and they die."

On June 11, 2020, Fox News' Harris Faulkner asked Trump if he knew who had originally said the phrase; Trump responded that he believed it had been the mayor of Philadelphia. Faulkner noted the correct origin (Headley, 1967) and meaning (shooting looters).{{cite news |last1=Chiu |first1=Allyson |title=Fox News host educates Trump on violent origins of 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts' phrase |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/12/trump-fox-protest-faulkner/ |newspaper=Washington Post |date=June 12, 2020}}{{cite news |title=Harris Faulkner on Trump's defense of looting remarks, Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, Lafayette Square visit |url=https://video.foxnews.com/v/6163616045001#sp=show-clips |publisher=Fox News |date=June 12, 2020}}

In the afternoon of May 29, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a personal statement that he found the comments (which had been posted to Facebook as well) "deeply offensive", but he also believed the posts were different from those that threaten or incite violence because they were about the use of "state force".{{Cite web|title=Mark Zuckerberg|url=https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111961824369871 |website=Facebook |access-date=June 3, 2020}}{{Cite news|last1=Frenkel|first1=Sheera|last2=Isaac|first2=Mike|last3=Kang|first3=Cecilia|last4=Dance|first4=Gabriel J. X.|date=June 1, 2020|title=Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout to Protest Trump Posts|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html|access-date=June 3, 2020}} Trump called Zuckerberg hours after the initial post, and Trump explained the initial post was intended to be a warning, which he publicly reiterated by posting on Twitter and Facebook; Zuckerberg stated his decision was influenced by Trump's explanation.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/28/facebook-zuckerberg-trump-hate/ |title=Zuckerberg once wanted to sanction Trump. Then Facebook wrote rules that accommodated him. |date=June 28, 2020 |author1=Dwoskin, Elizabeth |author2=Timberg, Craig |author3=Romm, Tony |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=3 May 2021 |url-access=subscription}} On June 1, hundreds of Facebook employees staged a virtual walk-out from work, in protest.{{Cite web|last=Rodriguez|first=Salvador|date=June 1, 2020|title=Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/01/facebook-employees-stage-virtual-walkout-over-trump-post-moderation.html |publisher=CNBC }}{{Cite web|last1=Byers|first1=Dylan|last2=Abbruzzese|first2=Jason|date=June 1, 2020|title=Facebook employees go public with disagreement over Zuckerberg's handling of Trump|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-employees-go-public-disagreement-over-zuckerberg-s-handling-trump-n1220961|access-date=June 3, 2020|website=NBC News|language=en}} That evening, after a call with Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, three civil rights leaders said, "We are disappointed and stunned by Mark's incomprehensible explanations for allowing the Trump posts to remain up{{nbsp}}... he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump's call for violence against protesters."{{Cite web|last=Feiner|first=Lauren|date=June 2, 2020|title=Civil rights leaders say they're 'disappointed and stunned' after call with Facebook's Zuckerberg and Sandberg|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/02/civil-rights-leaders-stunned-after-call-with-zuckerberg.html |publisher=CNBC |access-date=June 3, 2020}}

On June 2, Zuckerberg stated on an internal call with 25,000 Facebook employees that his review concluded "the reference is clearly to aggressive policing — maybe excessive policing — but it has no history of being read as a dog whistle for vigilante supporters to take justice into their own hands."{{cite news |url=https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/2/21278405/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-internal-employee-q-a-defend-moderate-trump-looting-shooting-post |title=Mark Zuckerberg on leaked audio: Trump's looting and shooting reference 'has no history of being read as a dog whistle' |author=Ghaffary, Shirin |date=June 2, 2020 |work=recode |access-date=June 3, 2020}} Thirty-three former employees posted an open letter to Facebook on June 3 disputing that conclusion: "President Trump's post on Friday not only threatens violence by the state against its citizens, it also sends a signal to millions who take cues from the President."{{cite news |url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21279671/facebook-former-employees-mark-zuckerberg-letter-trump |title=Former Facebook employees forcefully join the chorus against Mark Zuckerberg |author=Sottek, T.C. |date=June 3, 2020 |work=The Verge |access-date=June 3, 2020}} As an experiment, an anonymous Facebook page was created on June 4, reposting Trump's Facebook content verbatim, including "when the looting starts"; that specific repost was flagged on June 11 for violating Community Standards on violence and incitement.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-donald-trump-copy-account-flagged-inciting-violence/ |title=Facebook page that copies President Trump's posts gets flagged for violence – when the president's didn't |author=O'Kane, Caitlin |date=June 12, 2020 |work=CBS News |access-date=3 May 2021}}

The Facebook Oversight Board, which had first been announced in November 2018 as an independent board to review the company's content moderation decisions, declined to review the post because the Board was not yet operational.{{cite news |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/facebook-oversight-board-wont-review-trumps-shooting-starts-posts.html |title=Facebook's new Oversight Board isn't operational yet and won't review Trump's 'shooting starts' posts |author=Rodriguez, Salvador |date=June 3, 2020 |work=CNBC |access-date=3 May 2021}} Later in June, Facebook announced new policies to label posts that violated the platform's hate speech rules, but also stated that Trump's initial post would not have qualified.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{George Floyd protests}}

{{Black Lives Matter}}

Category:1960s in Miami

Category:1967 controversies

Category:1967 in Florida

Category:1967 quotations

Category:Quotations from crime

Category:1968 controversies

Category:2020 controversies in the United States

Category:African-American history in Miami

Category:African-American-related controversies

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Category:Anti-black racism in Florida

Category:Anti-black racism in the United States

Category:Black Lives Matter

Category:Controversies in Florida

Category:December 1967 in the United States

Category:Donald Trump and social media

Category:English words and phrases

Category:Facebook criticisms and controversies

Category:George Floyd protests in the United States

Category:Law enforcement controversies in the United States

Category:May 2020 in the United States

Category:Miami-Dade Police Department

Category:Miami Police Department

Category:Police brutality in the United States

Category:Political repression in the United States

Category:First Trump administration controversies

Category:Twitter controversies

Category:White supremacy in the United States

Category:Looting in the United States