Minneapolis Mayor Takes Heat over Handling of Clark Shooting

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges got peppered with questions from protestors about police violence. (Kyndell Harkness/Star Tribune)

[STAR TRIBUNE]

The uproar over the fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark is turning into a political crisis for Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, whose handling of the situation put her at odds Thursday with some of the progressive allies who helped propel her into office in 2013.

A day after a marathon standoff between activists and police at the Fourth Precinct in north Minneapolis, the state council of one of Minnesota’s largest labor unions, the SEIU, called on Hodges to “engage directly to de-escalate the current situation brought on by the police.” Activists, some of whom went searching for Hodges at her home Wednesday night, confronted her for not responding to their demands and for allowing police to physically disperse protesters.

“You’re supposed to be this different mayor, right? Everybody told me to vote for you. And I just didn’t believe that you were ready,” North Side activist Roxxanne O’Brien told Hodges at her office Thursday.

O’Brien also criticized Hodges for requesting patience with an investigation process “designed by people who have historically traumatized us.” The exchange was streamed live on social media.

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