when the looting starts, the shooting starts in English

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Etymology: Originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21", of "taking advantage of the civil rights campaign" that was then sweeping the United States. Head templates: {{en-proverb|head=when the looting starts, the shooting starts}} when the looting starts, the shooting starts

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{
  "etymology_text": "Originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused \"young hoodlums, from 15 to 21\", of \"taking advantage of the civil rights campaign\" that was then sweeping the United States.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
      },
      "expansion": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Crime",
          "orig": "en:Crime",
          "parents": [
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
            "Law",
            "All topics",
            "Justice",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters."
      ],
      "id": "en-when_the_looting_starts,_the_shooting_starts-en-proverb-XE6iOJtK",
      "links": [
        [
          "Lethal",
          "lethal"
        ],
        [
          "force",
          "force"
        ],
        [
          "rioter",
          "rioter"
        ],
        [
          "looter",
          "looter"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Walter E. Headley",
        "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused \"young hoodlums, from 15 to 21\", of \"taking advantage of the civil rights campaign\" that was then sweeping the United States.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
      },
      "expansion": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Crime"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Lethal",
          "lethal"
        ],
        [
          "force",
          "force"
        ],
        [
          "rioter",
          "rioter"
        ],
        [
          "looter",
          "looter"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Walter E. Headley",
        "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
}

Download raw JSONL data for when the looting starts, the shooting starts meaning in English (1.1kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (9a96ef4 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"when the looting starts, the shooting starts" meaning in English

Proverb