But, he added, “As with most contracts, the contract is only as strong as the people who are abiding by it. If you think of being a black person in America who is living in Minneapolis or Minnesota or any place where you’re not having a good time, ask yourself this question when you watch those people: what vested interest do they have in maintaining the contract? Why don’t we all loot? Why doesn’t everybody take? Because we’ve agreed on things. … Think about how many people who don’t, the have-nots, say, ‘I’m still going to play by the rules, even though I have nothing, because I still wish for the society to work and exist.’ Then, some members of the society, namely black American people, watch time and time again how the contract they have signed with society is not being honored by the society that has forced them to sign it with them.”
The looting of stores has been frequently criticized, most notoriously perhaps by President Donald Trump: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “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!” His comment invoked the words of former Miami police chief Walter Headley, who said in 1967, amid protests, “We haven’t had any serious problems with civil uprising and looting because I’ve let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts. We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.”
Noah didn’t cite Trump by name, but did provide a rebuke to those who sought to denigrate the looters. People often ask what good looting does, said Noah. “What good doesn’t it do?” he continued. “That’s the question people don’t ask the other way around…. the only reason you didn’t loot Target before is because you were upholding society’s contract. There is no contract if law and people in power don’t uphold their end of it.”
He added, “That’s the thing people don’t understand sometimes. We need people at the top to be the most accountable, because they are the ones who are basically setting the tone and tenor for everything we do in our society. It’s the same way we tell parents to set an example for their kids, the same way we tell captains or coaches to set an example for their players, the same way we tell teachers to set an example for their students. The reason we do that is because we understand in society that if you lead by example, there is a good chance that people will follow that example you have set. If the example law enforcement is setting that they don’t adhere to the laws, then why should the citizens of that society adhere to the laws when in fact the law enforcers themselves don’t?”