As waves of protest become increasingly bloody, with police forces shooting rubber bullets and tear gas canisters
directly into protestors' and journalists' faces, often at point-blank range, President Trump has responded two ways: by explicitly calling for more violence, and by all-caps tweeting the name of America's longest-running scripted TV show, Law & Order.
One of the stars of the Law & Order franchise, outspoken actor and rapper Ice-T, was emphatically not having it.
The tweet came as part of a triptych of all caps tweets Sunday evening, the first two reading " STRENGTH!" and "FAKE NEWS!". But it was the third tweet, reading "LAW & ORDER!", that caught Ice-T's eye.
Ice-T is a star of the popular Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and suffice to say he's not a fan of the President, or his Twitter feed, or his way with words. So he fired back.
Quote-tweeting the President, Ice-T kept his response simple and to-the-point.
This MF...... https://t.co/6jRZJbPerm
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) May 31, 2020
But Ice-T wasn't even close to finished.
Ice-T has a long history of outspokenness and activism when it comes to police brutality and racism. His band Body Count's controversial 1992 song "
Cop Killer," written and recorded in the wake of the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, addressed the issue head-on and became forever associated with the riots that ensued in the wake of the officers' acquittal at trial.
So, unsurprisingly, Ice-T had a few more choice words for the POTUS.
The President should come outside and speak to the people! … Second thought, maybe not.
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) June 1, 2020
And still more:
I stand with the People..Always have. 👊🏽
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) June 1, 2020
And just in case his stance wasn't completely clear, he let us all know:
Dude really hid in his Bunker last night??? Cuzz is shook.. lol
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) June 1, 2020
Before you say I'm not 'AMERICAN' I'm a US Army Veteran.. Do your Homework.
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) June 1, 2020
Other folks on Twitter were right there with him, cheering him on.
Thank you, you're the only ICE I don't want to abolish
— j.r. (@realmessyboy) June 1, 2020
we're with you Ice
— adrian crawford (@Crawf33) June 1, 2020
He's a Punk. Hiding behind is phone on Social Media. He's No Leader. #ImpeachTrump
— Frank Ledezma (@FLedezmajr) May 31, 2020
While others took on the President directly—including one Ice-T's fellow Law & Order Mariska Hargitay.
JUSTICE & RESISTANCE! https://t.co/qNJ1NwlfCe
— Anonymous (@YourAnonOne) June 1, 2020
... he screams into the ether from his underground bunker. https://t.co/ASiZJsq5hp
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) June 1, 2020
But perhaps the best part is that Twitter, as it so often does, has turned this whole thing into a way to mock the President.
People are just all-caps tweeting random TV shows at him, over and over again.
GREY'S ANATOMY!
— Arianna Furi (@arianna_furi) June 2, 2020
GOLDEN GIRLS!
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) June 1, 2020
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL!
— TwittamiBeautiful (@TwBeautiful) June 2, 2020
PAW PATROL
— brie larson do abc (@visualglitch91) June 1, 2020
STARSKEY & HUTCH!!!
— jeffrey combs (@jeffreycombs) June 1, 2020
Now if we can just get him to maybe watch one of these programs instead of Fox News...