1/8 @JoeBiden on looting: "it makes things worse across the board, not better. No, it’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught. And it must end.” This isn't actually what Dr. King thought about #looting. @KeeangaYamahtta @LeftAnchor

2/8 King said that "a riot is the language of the unheard.” Too often we forget what he said next, "and, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.”

3/8 In his speech, “Nonviolence and Social Change,” King argued that while riots are often violent, their violence is typically directed toward property rather than against people. The focus on property is not accidental.

4/8 In another speech, King said that looting enables the deprived "to take hold of consumer goods" with "the ease" of those with money in their purses. And, “knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights.”

5/8 While those who hold both property and persons sacrosanct may wince at King’s distinction between the two, he explained that his views were not so rigid.

6/8 He wrote, "a life is sacred. Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on; it is not man.”

7/8 With this, King concluded that rioting that targets property (i.e., looting) and not persons maintains a core commitment to the moral principle of “nonviolence toward persons.”

8/8 King worried that the status quo would fail to see the moral restraint of the looters, and that they would resist the looters' demands on the grounds that looting “must not be rewarded.” @joebiden is making the very mistake that Dr. King worried about. #dobetterjoe