If cops shoot looters

As the legal scholar Orin Kerr noted, “actually following a policy of ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ would violate the 4th Amendment, for starters.” He cited the precedent in Tennessee v. Garner…

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More succinctly: Cops can’t just shoot someone looting gadgets from a Target or whiskey from a liquor store.

Trump swore to protect and defend the Constitution. He just violated that oath. When he wrote “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he implicitly urged law enforcement to adopt an approach that would transgress against the Constitution, violate 4th Amendment rights, and cause unlawful deaths. Rioting is abhorrent. Trump’s incendiary call for illegal acts is more likely to fuel than stop it––especially if any police act on his irresponsible words.

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