Left-wing Democratic Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes thinks that use of the word "thug" to describer the rioters and looters who rampaged through Baltimore Monday night is code word for, well, the N-word. Stokes Burnett by saying "you wouldn't call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do."
The CNN anchor politely replied, "Look, I respect your point of view. I would hope that I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing."
Heres the relevant transcript. Please note I have placed asterisks in his use of the N-word, which Stokes, who happens to be black, freely used and which CNN did not bleep:
CNN
Erin Burnett OutFront
April 28, 2015
7:10 p.m. Eastern
ERIN BURNETT: Councilman, you know, it's interesting because the mayor of Baltimore, who has come under a lot of criticism, scathing criticism for her handling of this, referred to the people who were doing this last night as thugs, and she got a lot of criticism for that. There were people I saw on Twitter saying why would you call them thugs? Then they're not going to listen to you. President Obama also called the protesters in his words today quote/unquote criminals and thugs. He also carefully chose to use that word. Isn't it the right word?
CARL STOKES, Baltimore City Councilman: No, of course it's not the right word to call our children thugs. These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us. No, we don't have to call them thugs.
BURNETT: But how does that justify what they did? I mean, that's a sense of right from wrong. They know it's wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old person's home. Come on.
STOKES: Come on? So calling them thugs-- just call them n****ers. Just call them n****ers. No! We don't have to call them by names such as that. We don't have to do that. That is exactly what we have set them to. No, when you say come on, come on what? You wouldn't call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do.
BURNETT: Look, I respect your point of view. I would hope that I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing.
