Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes let loose on CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday night after the news anchor argued that “thugs” was “the right word” to describe protestors on the streets.

Burnett, who is white, began by noting that both Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlins-Blake and President Obama had referred to the “bad actors” as “thugs.”

Stokes, who is black, rejected the word and told Burnett she was referring to teenagers and young people — “our children” — who clashed with police on Monday night.

“But how does that justify what they did?” Burnett said. “I mean, that’s a sense of right and wrong. They know it’s wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old person’s home. I mean, come on.”

“Come on?” Stokes said. “So calling them thugs — just call them niggers. Just call them niggers.”

“When you say ‘come on,’ come on what?” he added. “You wouldn’t call your a child a thug if they did something which was not what you’d expect them to do.”

“I would hope I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing,” Burnett shot back.

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