On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her criticized protesters for barging into a church in the city, and stated that “if there’s going to be a call for respecting sacred spaces, then our federal government and the agents of the federal government should be respecting those sacred spaces as well. That is the only way that we’re going to bring calm and order back to our city, is if everyone, on both sides of the spectrum, agree[s], that they are going to respect sacred spaces.”
Her said that due to the ongoing investigation into the incident, she “can’t expand too much on, really, that particular situation.”
She continued, “But I will say that, for me personally, I am somebody who’s a person of faith. I’m a Christian. I think that places of worship are sacred spaces. But I’ve said this before, is that, if our federal government and our friends from the other side of the aisle want us to respect sacred spaces, which I believe a church is, a place of worship is a sacred space, that that means that we have to also respect other spaces, such as hospitals, places of which people are needing to get exams or needing to be treated because, at the hands of ICE, [they] have been injured. That means that schools, where children are present, should be off-limits. And so, I think that it is really important that, if there’s going to be a call for respecting sacred spaces, then our federal government and the agents of the federal government should be respecting those sacred spaces as well. That is the only way that we’re going to bring calm and order back to our city, is if everyone, on both sides of the spectrum, agree[s], that they are going to respect sacred spaces.”
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