A KSTP-TV news report on a get-out-the-vote drive, in which Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and an African American activist embraced and pointed at each other, turned a playful gesture into a media free-for-all.
Why would Mayor Hodges flash gang signs with 2x convicted felon? Find out why police are fuming in ten minutes on 5 at ten.
— Jay Kolls (@JayKollsKSTP) November 7, 2014
“She is legitimizing these people. She is legitimizing gangs who are killing our children in Minneapolis and I just can’t believe it.”
— Retired MPD officer Michael Quinn, on KSTP
“Is she going to support gangs in the city or cops?”
— Minneapolis police union head John Delmonico, on KSTP
“Today from the file of stories that would be simply ridiculous if they didn’t reveal sad realities of life in America: During a get out the vote drive, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges posed for a photo with a black constituent, only to be slammed by local police as ‘throwing up gang signs.”
“People really believed the duo of John Delmonico and Jay Kolls that the Mayor supports gangs? Jay and John both have a long history of bombast and it makes me very happy to see most people see through this.”
— Former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak on Facebook
“Unfortunately it’s time to once again update our list of innocent things black people do that look suspicious…Don’t wear a hoodie, don’t carry Skittles, don’t carry keys, don’t reach for a wallet, don’t drive in a car in a nice neighborhood, don’t drive in a car, don’t be a passenger in a car, don’t knock on a white person’s door and now, don’t point.”
— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
“The story was so widely repudiated that I was surprised that the Stick Up Boys themselves didn’t hold a news conference to disavow connections to a middle-aged woman who likes to quote Garth Brooks on Twitter. That has to be embarrassing to any legitimate gangster.”
— Jon Tevlin, Star Tribune
“It crossed a line that went beyond poor judgment. At the very least, it was extremely poor judgment; at the worst it was racist.”
— Health-insurance company UCare, announcing that it would stop advertising on KSTP
