Friend,

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

That's what Miami Police Chief Walter Headley said in 1967, when he vowed to use shotguns and dogs to combat crime in black neighborhoods. When rioting broke out in 1968, he made the same promise.

This week, President Donald Trump repeated those exact same words. And, while he's now pretending that he didn't mean them, we know him; we know he did.

On Monday, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police who ignored his pleas when their knees crushed his throat. Yet it took more than three days for charges to be brought against one of the officers.

Donald Trump has shown neither leadership nor compassion in response. He could have addressed the issue. He could have expressed compassion. He could have quoted any number of leaders. Instead, he chose to look back to the 1960s and repeat the words uttered by a long dead, hateful Miami police chief. He knew what he was doing.

His campaign knew what he was doing as well and they panicked and resorted to an old Trump tactic: Blame others.

It's pathetic. When the president tweets racist garbage, he has no one to blame but himself. When the president fails to lead, he has no one to blame but himself.

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of words and leadership.

I've been thinking about the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, who when he visited the United States in the 1830s knew that -- though we were then a puny little nation -- we would become the greatest country in the world. He also knew that the biggest threat to that is racism.

Donald Trump has repeatedly ignored the lessons of the past, so I don't expect him to know Alexis de Tocqueville's prescient prediction from the 1830s. I'm sure he's never actually read de Tocqueville. But the fact that he knew the racist promise of that 1960s Miami police chief says everything.

I've also been thinking a lot about Martin Luther King Jr. and his letter from the Birmingham jail. During the turmoil in Minneapolis, it's worth remembering his words: "Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress."

When a man like Donald Trump calls for "law and order" by quoting "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," he's not envisioning the law and order of Martin Luther King Jr. He's looking to oppress -- and silence.

Donald Trump is failing to lead when this nation needs it most. The only question left to answer is this: Is Donald Trump afraid to lead, or does he simply not know how?

What we're seeing is a reflection of this country under his leadership, or lack thereof. It should make us uncomfortable. It should make us sad. But it should also spur us to action -- the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin deserve that.

May their memory be a blessing -- and may it bring the change we so desperately need.

Sincerely,

Chuck Schumer