Words Matter

Violence erupted in Minneapolis-St. Paul as protestors continued demonstrations following the death of George Floyd as a result of a police officer subduing him with his knee pressed against the neck of Floyd as the man begged for air

President Trump, who previously called the video of Mr. Floyd’s death “shocking,” later called the protesters “thugs” on Twitter and said that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” prompting the social media network to attach a warning to the tweet, saying that it violated the company’s rules about “glorifying violence.”

The company prevented users from viewing Mr. Trump’s message without first reading a brief notice describing the rule violation. Twitter also blocked users from liking or replying to Mr. Trump’s post. But Twitter did not take the message down, saying it was in the public interest for the president’s words remain accessible.

This morning, the official White House Twitter account posted a tweet that copied the words of Mr. Trump’s earlier post. The White House post was also flagged by Twitter for violating its policies.

Haha Trump.  You cannot side-step around your call for violence.

The death of Mr. Floyd is no laughing matter. For police trainers and criminologists, the episode is a textbook case of why many police departments across the country have sought to outright ban or limit the use of chokeholds or other neck restraints in recent years: The practices have too often turned fatal. Department records indicate, however, that the Minneapolis police have not entirely abandoned the use of neck restraints, even if the method used by the police officer is no longer part of police training. The Minneapolis Police Department’s manual states that neck restraints and chokeholds are basically reserved only for when an officer is caught in a life-or-death situation. There was no such apparent threat during Mr. Floyd’s detention.