#Pointergate

There is this thing happening in Minneapolis right now, called Pointergate.  Google it; I’m telling the truth.  So, here’s what happened:

The Mayor of Minneapolis, Betsy Hodges, who looks exactly like a middle-school PTO mom who runs half-marathons, went over to a get-out-the-vote event, held, or at least supported, by a group called Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.  With me so far?

One of the employees of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change was a man who had a perspective that was probably helpful to the organization, in that he was a guy who had been a criminal, and had done time in the pokey.  This man, Navell Gordon, and the Mayor posed for a photo op (after all, this guy is an example of someone turning his fucking life around.  He can’t even vote, but he is trying to get others who have that right to use it), and in the photo op, the two pointed at each other like so.  I think I have several pictures of myself like that.  This is still not the problem.

But in case you’re not following along so good, allow me to recap:

Mayor visiting get-out-the-vote effort – totally okay

Get-out-the-vote effort – totally okay

Convict doing time and being released from prison – okay + Constitutional

Former convict getting job – totally okay and even desirable

Former convict and mayor posing for picture together – okay!

Former convict and mayor using goofy hand gesture – sure, totally okay

HERE is the problem: this FUCKING ASSHOLE by the name of Jay Kolls, who works for Minneapolis TV station KSTP, decided to spin the story with this lead-in:

“5 Eyewitness News has obtained a photo of Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges posing with a convicted felon while flashing a known gang sign.” 

I shit you not, that’s the way this was spun.  A known gang sign.  Did you see the picture?  Look at it again.  Does this look like a gang sign?  Do you think the intent was to “flash” a “known” gang sign?  What message was the mayor trying to send?  Gangs, come to Minneapolis for the Jucy Lucy and stay for the vibrant gang scene?  That she, herself is part of a gang?  That she condones gang behavior?  And what of the young man, who was WORKING TO SERVE ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF OUR GREAT NATION, despite the fact that, as a convicted felon, his right to vote was stripped from him? 

This story was not about journalism.  It was about journalists and a news organization who have completely lost the thread.  This video shows the actual work that Mayor Hodges and Navell Gordon did.  What KSTP did was foment fear and suspicion, which was absolutely not their job. 

However, on the off-chance that they were correct, I’d like to make you aware of a bunch of other people throwing known gang signs: Here’s Minneapolis native Prince, known gangsta Garth Brooks, this criminal baby, these creeps, known leader of the "Gang of Twelve",  no one should be surprised by this guy, but also this guy and this guy, and, of course, this guy.  Damn.  Maybe we should be worried.