'Looting' is now racist to the left - 'The Five' break down the pitfalls of playing 'word police'

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Watters: 'Don't you dare call this "looting"'

'The Five's' co-hosts react to the left's labeling of 'looting' a racist term.

In the wake of a rash of lootings around San Francisco, the left is calling the use of the term "looting" - you guessed it - racist. 

The hosts of "The Five" on Tuesday said liberals are showing how misplaced their priorities are with their focus on race and word games.

"Liberals are more focused on not hurting the feelings of smash-and-grab gangs than getting tough on crime," "The Five" co-host Jesse Watters said.

"This is part, I believe, of someone thinking this is reparations for society's inequities. … And I wonder why [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom's mad now. He laid the groundwork for all this," co-host Brian Kilmeade said. 

Watters jokingly suggested using the term "reparation-hunters" instead of "looters."

Co-host Dana Perino said she would use the same term to describe White looters. Even Democrat Jessica Tarlov remarked that those playing "word police" are "losing the real battle." 

"People know what they're seeing, and now that everything is being caught on video, they know exactly what it is," she said. "It doesn't matter what you call it. It's stealing things, and people will use any number of synonyms for that."

Dagen McDowell chimed in, pointing out that store security guards are not stopping thieves "very often because the stores are afraid of being called ‘racist’ if they lay their hands on anybody [to]…try to detain them."

She recalled seeing thieves "stealing in broad daylight from a store" in New York City and screaming "Rape!" or "You're a racist, get your hands off of me!" when confronted by the security guard.

Looting "creates these poverty zones," she continued, such as in San Francisco where 17 Walgreens locations have closed, and five more are expected to shutter. They were ravaged by the city's high rate of theft, which is five times the national average.

As a result, McDowell observed, its residents are left in low-income areas without access to [Walgreens'] drugs, goods and jobs. 

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"I thought this [is] a jobs presidency. Why would people be looting in a jobs presidency?" Watters asked.