#Pointergate Minneapolis Mayor Flashes Gang Signs According To Local News
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5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has obtained a photo of Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges posing with a convicted felon while flashing a known gang sign.
The man in the photo is a twice-convicted felon for drug selling and possession and illegal possession of a firearm. He is currently sentenced to five years at the St. Cloud Correctional Facility, with the prison term stayed for three years while he is under supervised probation until 2016. If he violates terms of his probation during that time, he will serve the five years behind bars.
The photo was taken a week before the November election while the mayor canvassed neighborhoods with a nonprofit group in a get-out-the-vote event. Hodges declined repeated requests for interviews, but her spokesperson told us the mayor enjoys meeting with many people who are organizing on the North side.
The spokesperson also says the man in the photo is well regarded by the nonprofit that employs him and the mayor is simply "pointing at him" in the photo. Retired Minneapolis police officer Michael Quinn, who also managed the department's Internal Affairs Unit, says the photo is "disappointing because it puts police officers at risk."
When asked to respond to the mayor's statement that she is just "pointing at him," he said, "She can't be that naive. I cannot imagine."
"She is legitimizing these people. She is legitimizing gangs who are killing our children in Minneapolis and I just can't believe it. It hurts," Quinn said.
Quinn says law enforcement agencies are "going to be ? about this. They're going to be angry, and they should be."
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS was alerted to the photo by law enforcement after they discovered the photo on the man's Facebook page while doing investigative work. Several law enforcement sources in separate agencies tell us they were outraged when they saw the photo and say the sign the mayor is flashing is known to be the sign of a gang on the city's North side.
We asked Minneapolis Police Chief Janee' Harteau to comment on the photo, but her office declined our request.
http://kstp.com/article/12303/?vid=5435692
Comments
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I just saw this on another site. Man these ? win a few elections and they get full of themselves. They're targeting her because she has a program to uncover corruption in the police force that starts with mandatory body cameras this week.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/07/1342840/--pointergate-may-be-the-most-racist-news-story-of-2014#
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Non-story - ? just took a picture.And prolly smoked a lil weed, and got the train run on her by the homies.
Nothing to see here. -
count remy wrote: »I just saw this on another site. Man these ? win a few elections and they get full of themselves. They're targeting her because she has a program to uncover corruption in the police force that starts with mandatory body cameras this week.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/07/1342840/--pointergate-may-be-the-most-racist-news-story-of-2014#
And the guy in the photo is named Navell Gordon, who has a felon on his record (which he admits to), but he is being targeted by local police since he is collecting signatures to petition restoring the voting rights of felons.Minneapolis officer accused of strong-arm tactics with canvasser
Article by: LIBOR JANY , Star Tribune Updated: September 15, 2014 - 11:28 PM
Community activists said Monday that a Minneapolis police officer used excessive force when arresting an outreach worker and then threatened to shoot witnesses to the incident.
Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) officials said that Navell Gordon, 22, of Minneapolis, was collecting signatures for a petition to restore felons’ voting rights outside Cub Foods at 701 W. Broadway on Thursday when an employee asked him to leave.
Officials claim that Gordon was approached by an officer, identified in a police report as Tyrone Barze Jr., who, after a brief exchange, tackled and handcuffed him.
When several witnesses protested, Barze reportedly threatened to shoot them if they persisted, said Wintana Melekin, NOC’s community engagement director.
Melekin said she rushed to the scene after learning of Gordon’s arrest and was arrested after confronting Barze.
A three-minute YouTube video, at tinyurl.com/o3za4wv, purportedly of the exchange showed an officer repeatedly asking Melekin to leave the store or face arrest. After escorting her outside, it appeared that Melekin tried to go back into the store, at which point the officer arrested her.
The incident happened about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Both Melekin and Gordon were charged with trespassing and released at the scene.
Police spokesman Lt. John Elder said he couldn’t comment, because the investigation is ongoing.
“Generally speaking, people have the right to do political canvassing, to talk to people, to hand out literature on what are known as public forums, which are public streets and public sidewalks,” said Teresa Nelson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
Melekin said Gordon was standing on Cub property at the time of his arrest, but said she believed that the officer’s use of force far exceeded what was needed.
Barze, a five-year veteran of the force, has been named in at least two recent lawsuits, including one in which he was accused of using a “neck restraint” to control a combative high school student, causing the teenager to lose consciousness. Barze could not be reached for comment.
Libor Jany • 612-673-4064
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/275230181.html -
So, pointing your finger in the general direction of another person is considered a gang sign now?
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Krackas n theyre ? . Even if she did throw up a gang side. It's not like she's banging.
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Name the specific gang and set that hand sign represents....
...if that's the case Bush was always representing..
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"Any flexing of fingers while a Black person is within 500 yards is gang related"---White People
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This is easily the dumbest thing ever.
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Lmfao
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Non-story - ? just took a picture.And prolly smoked a lil weed, and got the train run on her by the homies.
Nothing to see here.
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Hmph.... this is asinine
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They always wanna be down
And end up going down. -
And you wonder why more of them don't stand against racism. Sometimes all it takes is to be seen in the vicinity of a white person and that's all it takes to become a target.
