'It's not the right word to call our children': Outrage after officials call looters 'thugs'

BALTIMORE— Many people were enraged when President Barack Obama used the word "thugs" to describe the rioters who looted stores in Baltimore.
Obama criticized the "criminals and thugs who tore up" Baltimore. City Councilman Carl Stokes went off on CNN.

"Of course it's not the right word to call our children 'thugs,'" Stokes said. "Just call them n*ggers. Just call them n*ggers. No, we don't have to call them by names such as that."

Anger about use of the word "thugs" was already on many people's minds. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also called the looters "thugs" on Monday, though she later backtracked after a torrent of criticism.

"Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for," she said at a press conference.

Melvin Townes, a 16-year-old black Baltimore resident, shook his head in disbelief at the mayor's word choice.

"Don't call me that," Townes said. "That makes me so f*cking mad. That lady had the audacity to call us thugs. She's not solving no issues."