Is Donald Trump Inciting Violence?

The issue at hand is President Donald Trump is being accused of inciting violence at protesters in Minneapolis who were protesting over the death of George Floyd while in police custody. The protests were created by the Black Lives Matter movement due to the increase and exposure of police brutality against black people of America. The people want justice to be served and for the arrest of all the cops involved in the incident, including the other three officers who stood around and watched as George Floyd struggled due to breath underneath the officers knee on his neck.

President Trump made a twitter tweet on Friday stating, “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

Even Twitter itself labeled Trump’s tweet as one that violated the company’s policy because it was glorifying violence in the last line. Twitter said that it was “glorifying violence” and they allowed it to remain accessible for the public’s interest. The tweet had violated Twitter’s rules. Hillary Clinton tweeted that Trump is "calling for violence against American citizens."

The category of law is prior restraint if Donald Trump is charged for his twitter tweet because his words presented in his tweet encourage people to shoot looters. Prior restraint is when the government prevents material from being published because of 6 reasons:Obstruction of military, publication of troop locations, numbers, and movement, foreseeable overthrow of government, obscene publications, incitements to violence, and fighting words.

In this case, his actions could be cited as an incitement to violence because his tweet is advocating for illegal action. Incitement is punishable if it is “directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action” and “is likely to incite or produce such action". Donald Trump commits both of these crimes that indicate the use of Incitement. The police have the right to arrest him although he did not personally shoot anyone. It would be an incredibly difficult process to charge the President for this crime and win against him, however, because he is the commander in chief of the Armed Forces, the National Police and all other state’s security agency. Some argue that this is the most important duty of the president to defend the United States, including its territories and possessions, from attack with the aid of the armed forces.

We know that the government will not arrest someone simply based on their speech, like in the Hess vs Indiana case in 1973. The Supreme Court said that Hess’s speech was protected because the speaker did not inflame the crowd to respond with immediate illegal acts. In Trump’s case, his tweet would have inflamed the crowd to respond in a violent and illegal manner.

The President’s history of incitement can be used to determine that his tweet will in fact cause people who support him to produce imminent lawless action immediately after his tweet. In this case, the judge should rule in favor to charge him with incitement, but only if someone is willing to put in the time and effort to make this case against him and follow through with it.

Cited Work:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/racist-president-democrats-accuse-trump-inciting-violence-minneapolis-n1217871