On Monday’s broadcast of WBUR’s “Here and Now,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that he wouldn’t protest in a church, and “it doesn’t take place in Minneapolis. What I can say is, in Minneapolis, we’ve had tens of thousands of peaceful people peacefully protesting.” And “If the goal here is peace and order, then there’s a very easy antidote to achieve it, which is for ICE and the troops and anyone else to leave.” He also stated that violent protesters in the city have been punished.
Frey said, “I can’t speak for the church protest, and, obviously, it doesn’t take place in Minneapolis. What I can say is, in Minneapolis, we’ve had tens of thousands of peaceful people peacefully protesting.”
He added, “It is unsettling. Again, I don’t know as much about it simply because it didn’t happen in Minneapolis. Granted, being in a church is a place that is sacred. Here’s what I would say: Certainly, that is not the route that I would’ve taken, individually, to protest in a church. I don’t know enough of the circumstances behind it, again, so I don’t want to comment on something that I’m not aware of.”
Frey further stated, “We do not need more armed troops. We do not need more of an invasion or an occupation or whatever you want to call it. If the goal here is peace and order, then there’s a very easy antidote to achieve it, which is for ICE and the troops and anyone else to leave.”
Frey concluded that when protesters haven’t been peaceful, “there have been consequences, people have been arrested, and we don’t tolerate it.”
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