| Meaning | Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters |
|---|---|
| Context | |
| Coined by | Chief Walter E. Headley, Miami Police Department (1967) |
"When the looting starts, the shooting starts" is a phrase originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season.[1][2] He accused "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21", of taking "advantage of the civil rights campaign" that was then sweeping the United States. Having ordered his officers to combat the violence with shotguns, he told the press that "we don't mind being accused of police brutality".[1][3] The quote may have been borrowed from a 1963 comment from Birmingham, Alabama police chief Bull Connor. It was featured in Headley's 1968 obituary published by the Miami Herald.
The quote was similarly used and possibly repeated by Headley himself in response to the 1968 Miami riots. Variations of the quote may have been used by other political figures, such as Alabama governor George Wallace, Philadelphia police commissioner and eventual mayor Frank Rizzo, and Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, and in 2020 by U.S. president Donald Trump.
Headley's quote was initially criticized by The Miami Report for exacerbating the violence in the 1968 Miami riots. The quote was brought under scrutiny by the U.S. Congress in response to the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots. It was also scrutinized in retrospect to the violence caused during the 1980 Miami riots. Trump's usage of the quote during the 2020 George Floyd protests was flagged by Twitter for encouraging violence, and it was criticized by various politicians of U.S. cities and states. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to remove Trump's use of the phrase in a Facebook post led to criticism and protests by Facebook employees.
- ^ a b "Words Fail; Miami Cops Get Tough with Negro Thugs". Standard-Speaker. Vol. 102, no. 28, 451. Hazleton, Pennsylvania. December 27, 1967. p. 1. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wines, Michael (May 29, 2020). "'Looting' Comment From Trump Dates Back to Racial Unrest of the 1960s". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 30, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
- ^ Shabad, Rebecca (May 29, 2020). "Where does the phrase 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts' come from?". NBC News. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
