Two-term African-American Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, later elected Speaker of the California State Assembly, handed down some strong advice Aug. 29, which was widely covered by Aug. 30: Democrats should stop calling riots “demonstrations,” because “burning and looting” will help re-elect President Donald Trump. Brown is the foremost African-American political figure in the state.
“The biggest threat to a Democratic election sweep in November isn’t the Republican in the White House, but the demonstrators who are tearing up cities in the name of racial justice,” Brown wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, on Aug. 29. “What we need to do is have everyone, including the media, stop calling the after-dark destruction ‘demonstrations.’”
Brown pointed out, “The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did not cross the bridge at Selma under cover of darkness. You can’t even read a protest sign at night. The demonstrations end when the sun goes down. After that, it’s trouble for trouble’s sake.”