Baltimore Councilman: Calling Rioters and Looters ‘Thugs’ Is Same as Calling Them ‘Niggers’

‘Just call them niggers, just call them niggers’

BURNETT: “I want to ask you about the anger. Are you concerned it could turn into more violence tonight or does it appear it’s under control? After all, there are 3,000 national guard and police now on the streets.”
STOKES: “I don’t think it’s under control because there are 3,000 police on the street. I can’t predict what will happen later, but I can tell you today has been a tremendously good day in Baltimore. We woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m., cleaning up the streets, cleaning up the neighborhoods. People have come out of their doors. No one is staying behind closed doors in Baltimore. The residents are coming out and saying this is our town, our city. Our issue is justice being served. There were a few aberrant, and I know that was a terrible scene that we saw last night and a little bit on Saturday, but the greater majority — so a few hundred people versus hundreds of thousands of residents of Baltimore city, have come out of their homes and said, this is Baltimore. This is our Baltimore. And they’re showing just who we are and why we’re standing up for justice. not only for Freddie Gray, but for all of the Freddie Grays that have been killed or brutalized in Baltimore.”
BURNETT: “Councilman, it’s interesting because the mayor of Baltimore, who has come under a lot of criticism, scathing criticism for her handling this, referred to the people doing this last night as thugs, and she got a lot of criticism about that. There were people I saw on Twitter who said why would you call them thugs? Now they’re not going to listen to you. President Obama also called them quote/unquote criminals and thugs. He also carefully chose to use that word. Isn’t it the right word?”
STOKES: “No, of course it’s not the right word to call our children thugs. These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us.”
BURNETT: “How does that justify what they did? That’s a sense of right from wrong. They know it’s wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old person’s home. I mean, come on.”
STOKES: “Come on? So calling them thugs, just call them niggers. Just call them niggers. No. We don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that. That is exactly what we have set them to. Now, when you say come on, come on what? You wouldn’t call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do.”

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact