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Protestors Block Minneapolis City Council Member And Demand Dropping Charges Against Rioters

(Screenshot/Facebook/Public — User: Donald Hooker Jr.)

Bradley Devlin General Assignment & Analysis Reporter
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The Minneapolis City Council’s vice president claimed she was “held hostage” by protestors with a list of demands while at a Pride celebration during the weekend.

Andrea Jenkins said she was “held hostage” while attending the Taking Back Pride demonstration in Loring Park, Fox News reported. Video posted Sunday showed Jenkins sitting in the passenger’s seat of a vehicle while demonstrators blocked the path. The demonstrators’ demands included dropping charges for individuals accused of rioting over the past year in the city of Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The video posted to Facebook showed a list of the demonstrators’ hand-written list of demands that was titled “The People’s Demands.” The activists apparently would not let Jenkin’s vehicle leave until she acquiesced to their demands.

The list included a demand to create a “community police accountability commission,” to “reopen all the cases of murderers,” the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and to “drop the charges for all 646 protesters and other protesters for 2020.”

Another demand included on the list was to “leave George Floyd Square alone. PERIOD.” The square is the area surrounding where George Floyd was killed by police.

As the protestors shouted the demands and asked if Jenkins supported them, Jenkins replied “Yes,” but shook her head when the mob asked for Frey to resign. As the group stayed in Jenkin’s vehicle’s way, she said yes, and the demonstrators continued to badger. “Do you understand English? I already said it,” Jenkins said in response.

When the group demanded Jenkins to leave George Floyd Square alone, Jenkins replied, “So you’re asking me not to do my job.”

Jenkins added, “I was elected to represent that neighborhood, so what you’re asking me to do is to not do my job.” (RELATED: George Floyd Square Features Special Instructions For White People)

Eventually, Jenkins signed the list of demands, but protestors then demanded her to print her name and date it as well, Fox News reported.

In a statement posted to her Facebook page, Jenkins said, “Black pain, Black trauma, Black anger is real and justified. What is not justified is the inhumane treatment of other humans because they hold elective office.”

“On Sunday afternoon, while attending a Pride event in Loring Park, something I’ve done on the last weekend in June for the past 20 plus years, I was verbally attacked, berated and held ‘hostage’ against my will by a large group of angry protesters,” Jenkins said.

“I have always believed in open dialogue where people can talk and be respectful of their differences,” Jenkins stated, but said she will not “be bullied and held hostage to somehow accomplish that.”

“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 added.

Jenkins also spoke out against the autonomous zone known as George Floyd Square in the Tuesday statement and claimed the autonomous zone was holding black-owned businesses and the rest of the neighborhood back for over a year. “What has become known as George Floyd Square already is and will continue to be a sacred space … However, it is time to stop holding the Black-owned businesses, the neighbors and residents of that area hostage,” Jenkins said.