Mayor Roasts Police Who Accused Her Of Flashing ‘Gang Signs’

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In the week since a Minnesota television station aired a segment accusing Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges of flashing a “gang sign” in a photo where she stands next to a “criminal,” the news outlet has been so widely ridiculed that it sparked a hashtag, #PointerGate, and grabbed the attention of Jon Stewart.

Hodges herself finally addressed the dust-up Thursday night and promised that she’s “not going to stop pointing.”

Local TV station KTSP’s report had quoted law enforcement officials who expressed outrage that the mayor would flash “gang signs” with a black man they insisted was a convicted felon, going as far as to suggest that Hodges may “incite gang violence.”

In a post on her blog, Hodges reiterated that the man she posed with in the photo was a volunteer helping with get-out-the-vote efforts and that their hand gestures were exactly what they looked like — an awkward pointing pose.

Hodges laid out a few reasons why she thought prominent Minneapolis police officials may have condemned her innocent photo op: that they want her to stop pointing for the sake of the community’s safety, that they want her to stop interacting with the public to preclude contact with people who have a criminal history, or that they want her to stop standing next to black men.

“I point a lot. Lots of people point,” she wrote of the first option. “The President. Bill Clinton. Stephen Colbert. Babies. It is the earliest form of human communication. I’m not going to stop pointing.”

Hodges dismissed those options one by one until she hit on a fourth possible explanation that she thought was the real impetus behind KTSP’s “non-story.”

“It could be that the head of the police union wants me to stop working to raise the standards of police culture and accountability,” she wrote. “It could be that he objects to the community policing and relationship-building measures that I am acting on, and attempted to use this non-story to discredit this work. I share the public’s speculation that this is the real option.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. hey cops and the reporter who made big toodo about this guess what Im pointing at ya right now and can ya guess which finger Im useing??? use your imagination!!!

  2. Avatar for jw1 jw1 says:

    HeadlineFix:

    RWNJs Scrape Bottom of Poutrage Barrel

    Slap 'em good and hard Madam Mayor.

    jw1

  3. Preach it!

    (shout out to my homies in MS13!)

  4. Memo to MPD, Betsy Hodges is no joke.

  5. THEY are COming toGEther To throw THE 3POINt crown SIGn USED bY the LATIN KIngs. CLearLY thiS crIMINAL is A MExICAN, CALVes AS biG as MELONs frOM CARRYing 40 Pound Bags of MARIJUANA over the BOrder. I’m SURE BetsY is being passed AROUND the ENTIre gang.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

17 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for jw1 Avatar for wildwilly1111 Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for barkingdogs3 Avatar for leftflank Avatar for humpback Avatar for cessnadriver Avatar for nick1936 Avatar for cwazycajun Avatar for wanderer Avatar for horrido Avatar for sniffit Avatar for tecmage Avatar for masonmcd Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for candirue Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for DatelessNerd Avatar for seehowtheyrun Avatar for TerriRK

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: