Comment by jtbayly
5 years ago
It is literally the president’s job to command the military. If he gives a warning that looting will lead to shooting, it is not glorifying violence. It is a statement of fact.
And looting always leads to shooting, regardless of who is saying it.
First of all, look up the Posse Comitatus Act.
Next, the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments to the United States constitution. Telling armed forces to shoot unarmed people because they happen to be looting (e.g. when there is no imminent threat to life) is summary execution and unconstitutional.
The Posse Comitatus act only applies to the Army and Air Force. It's DoD policy to pretend that it also covers the Marines and other branches, but AFAIK not a legal requirement. Even then, the Insurrection Act gives the Feds power to use the military as law enforcement in case of severe civil unrest (like the LA riots)
Sure and let's ignore the fact that if anyone stayed in those shops and tried to prevent protestors from "protesting", they'd just be peacefully left alone by those violent criminals because... Some random X-th amendment?
How about martial law, seeing as we're throwing around unrelated legal laws and concepts?
Either way, these ridiculous "protests" indicate a complete break down of society and the government should be sending in the military to arrest people.
Martial law doesn't allow summary execution either.
The national guard does not work like that. Also, no the military cannot just shoot people on the spot for being in the area of looting, it is not a "statement of fact." You just made this up and pulled it out of thin air so don't respond with "well prove it" or some other BS. Quit being a racist troll and reflect on your hateful little life.
> It is literally the president’s job to command the military.
Even if one views the Tweet as a legitimate military command, which it is not, unless the government has seized Twitter with just compensation as required by the 5th Amendment, it is not Twitter's obligation to ignore its own standard sfor the purpose of relaying such orders by the President.
Otherwise, except as to explaining why Twitter opted for the public interest notice rather than simple removal, the President’s job is irrelevant here.
> If he gives a warning that looting will lead to shooting, it is not glorifying violence.
That doesn't follow from the preceding, and the statement as written glorifies violence, both potential future violence and specific historical violence by the government against it's citizens, in much better the same way (though far more proximate historically and thus much worse) that it would if Trump said “Kill them all, and God will know his own.”
> It is a statement of fact.
It is quite possible to state a fact (or make a threat which one has the power to declare execute, which is more the case here than statement of fact) while glorifying the outcome that would be produced and/or the past historical antecedent which is invoked.