The vice president of the Minneapolis City Council alleged that she was “held hostage” during an LGBT celebration over the past weekend amid video footage posted online that showed a large number of demonstrators surrounding her vehicle and telling her to sign a list of demands.
“Every citizen of this City has a right to bring forward their concerns, but no citizen has the right to detain and coerce anyone to do anything, that includes elected officials,” Jenkins said, while adding that some businesses and residents in the area where George Floyd was killed last year have also been held “hostage” by demonstrators and agitators.
A left-wing demonstrator, D.J. Hooker, posted the clip to social media. Among other demands, Hooker wanted Jenkins to pledge her support “for [Mayor] Jacob Frey’s immediate resignation.” Jenkins then laughs and shakes her head “no,” while demonstrators start chanting: “Jacob Frey resign.”
In the KTSP interview, Jenkins, who was seen signing a document presented by the demonstrators, said she signed it in duress.
Frey, a Democrat, echoed Jenkins’s sentiment and said demonstrators have no right to hold people hostage and list demands.
“Holding people for hours against their will until they make a statement under duress is completely unacceptable,” he said, according to local media reports. “It’s wrong.”
Following Floyd’s death last year, millions of dollars in damage was done to businesses and residences in Minneapolis along as rioters, vandals, looters, and agitators ran amok. The former officer involved in Floyd’s death, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 and a half years in prison on second-degree murder charges.