The Star Tribune Editorial Board appropriately called out activist D.J. Hooker for his imprisonment of Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins in her car for over 90 minutes after a Loring Park event last Sunday ("Abuse of officials doesn't further causes," July 1). But while the Editorial Board arrived at the right position, it did so for the wrong reason by suggesting that ends justify means.
The Editorial Board described Hooker and his profanity-spewing mob's forced detention of Jenkins in her car as "not respectful" and a "tantrum." And because the angry mob terrorized an ally of Hooker's cause, the Editorial Board reasoned, it was not helpful since it would undermine their "noble goal" of police reform.
Using the Editorial Board's logic, the mob's actions are to be judged by their likely political results, not their effect on the victim. If the forced detention and terroristic threats had targeted a political foe and helped the mob's cause by changing the victim's position through coercion, would their acts be justified? The Editorial Board doesn't say.
Obviously, the Editorial Board isn't advocating violence. But not calling out violent assaults as being simply wrong reveals much. The Editorial Board evidently needs a reminder that violent assaults are no less wrong merely because perpetrators feel justified using whatever tactics they think might work.
This isn't the first violent attack on a political representative, and it almost certainly won't be the last. The short message for elected officials is this: No one is safe from the mob.
The answer to lawless conduct isn't to explain to the mob that they aren't helping their cause. The answer is to call out each and every instance of mob misconduct as being wrong and then arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators who cross a criminal line.
Whether it's against an ally or a foe, whether it's helpful or hurtful to any cause, threatening someone's physical safety is wrong because it is wrong. A mob's forced detention of a council member, a legislator or an average citizen is a serious crime that needs to be stopped.
I stand with Andrea Jenkins on this issue.
If we allow the rationalization of violent verbal and physical assaults on elected officials or political candidates or their families, Minnesota politics will accelerate in its already evident "race to the bottom" into a cesspool of intimidation, allowable because a "worthy cause" might be supported. Will this unsavory journey advance the worthy cause of persuading everyday citizens to participate in public service?
One final thought — if a Minneapolis police officer had been present last Sunday at Loring Park, might Andrea Jenkins' safety and constitutional rights been better protected?
Scott Jensen, of Chaska, is a physician, former state senator and a Republican candidate for governor in 2022.
