On Saturday, Black Lives Matter protesters went to Hugo, Minnesota and protested Minneapolis Police Federation president Bob Kroll and his wife, WCCO reporter Liz Collin (we will talk about Liz later on). A group of about 100 or so people congregated outside of Kroll’s house. I learned about this on Twitter first, which is usually how I hear about any “breaking” news. At first, all I could find was very partisan takes and voices, something I try to avoid because when partisan-ism and emotions combine, sifting through the information to find facts becomes extremely difficult and tiresome.
Before we get further in the story, I want to make a few things clear.
Protesting is part of American life and democracy, which includes protests you do not agree with.
Protesting is not supposed to make you feel comfortable or conform to your idea of what a protest is.
The media cannot cover every protest, but the media should be honest about protests. The coverage of the events in Hugo missed the mark.
A bad moment is not an excuse or reason to turn away from very important movement.
Righties or Trump supporters, if you are upset about what was said at in Hugo, make sure you take that anger back to your party. Currently, your party is led by a blowhard, always quick to lash out and announce threats. A man slowly killing the democracy you so badly claim you want leads your party. White supremacists have found a comfortable home in your party. Lunatic conspiracy theorists win your primaries. Your party threatens violence over and over to solve your problems, including marching on government buildings in with guns in tow because you can’t go drink at a bar or have to wear mask for 30 minutes while you shop. You can scream and call out what happened in Hugo but if you are not willing to call it out when you do it too, you have no leg to stand on.
The key issue in Hugo was a speech from John Thompson, a candidate for the MN House of Representatives, representing East St. Paul. I first came upon a snippet of his speech on Twitter, shared by Alpha News, a very partisan “news” site rated low on factual reporting. I asked myself what else is missing here; a 40-second clip cannot be the story. Accompanying the short clips were commentary that miss represented the words or they used clips that made it appear that they were taking something out of context. This was not surprising, as this is what extremists sites do, what made it absurd is they did not need to do so. I am glad I followed the story because my initial reaction was to roll my eyes and move on; I have no time for extreme left or right-wing news sources.
However, I wanted to hear for myself what he was saying, without bias. This took time and why until now, I have not been able to put my thoughts into words. That and trying to work with an 11 month-old in the house means I have like zero time to sit down and write in my free time. By the time of the day when she is in bed my brain and body is fried, something that millions of Americans are dealing with during out CoVID-19 winter.
Emotions run high at most protests, especially when those protests involve speeches and/or a rally. Getting caught up in the moment and saying something that will not sit well with everyone is bound to occur, however, Thompson’s speech was not just a slip of the tongue. It was a long expletive-laden sermon, filled with hate and threats. It was the kind of speech that if someone on the right had made, the left would have lost their mind, and rightfully so. It is important to call this out because if not, we lose creditability when calling out Trump for his racist comments. It makes it tough to try to call out any of the other GOP candidates for their inflammatory rhetoric as well.
Governor Walz had a chance to make a statement but he went with a vanilla, bland tweet to address it, failing to call it out by referencing the specific event, let alone the man who made the speech. Our politicians need to step up and call out their own parties when they make these inflammatory comments. Stamping out and calling out this type of rhetoric anytime it pops up, no matter who says it, needs to be our priority.
His speech did nothing to move the ball forward. Strategically it was an airball from the paint or a missed chip shot field goal that goes so far wide left, it made Blair Walsh look accurate. The last thing we need is anyone to feel bad for Bob Kroll. It is going to be hard to get rural white America or right-leaning America to stand up join the fight against injustice and extremist right-wing views if this the strategy you take. Any good points Thompson made got overshadowed by his threats. It also overshadowed a mostly (we will get to that shortly) otherwise peaceful and bold protest.
Straight, honest talk is one thing, inflammatory rhetoric and threatening is another.
Another issue was the piñatas used and destroyed by the protestors, including Thompson. First of all, if you are a grown person beating and/or hanging someone in effigy you need to take a hard look in the mirror. Second, it again causes people to look past your message. Mock violence is not going to add to the point you are trying to make. The laying of signs on his driveway spoke louder than the stick used to beat papier-mâché favor ever could.
Finally, including Liz, the wife of Bob Kroll, in the pinata destruction is unacceptable. I get that she is a reporter who is married to someone who represents what is wrong in police work and it is easy to hate on journalists in 2020, but beating a piñata that looks like her is gross. Is it fair to criticize her, absolutely, everyone is open to criticism, but there was none of that here. It was just a beating of a paper figure. I get that the retort may be, 'but like you said it is just paper'. The retort proves the point. We need substance not dangerous rhetoric.
What Mr. Thompson said in Hugo was unacceptable and it needs to be called out, not just by the DFL but also by people who support fighting the injustice in our country. There is great momentum right now and we need to keep that moving.
What happened in Hugo is a microcosm of what is happening too often in our country. We have lost our civility and it is creating a mess. It threatens to undermine the real change we need.
As Blois Olson says in his op-ed “It’s everyone’s fault, but it’s especially the fault of our leaders (on both sides) who refuse to stand up to the extreme voices in each party.”
Oh, and just so we are all clear, Black Lives Matter.
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