The Department of Justice is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey following the shooting death of Renee Macklin Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7, according to reports.
Frey said in an interview with Here & Now that he has not received a subpoena. If he and Walz are the subject of a DOJ investigation, Frey said that’s “another disturbing and unconstitutional development.”
“The targeting itself would be the product of performing one of the most basic duties of the mayor, which is speaking on behalf of my constituents, of the people that I am charged with representing,” Frey said. “And that kind of infringement on freedom of speech and retaliation against public servants around the country and locations that simply didn’t vote for the president of the United States should not just be concerning to Minneapolis, but for everybody throughout the whole country.”
4 questions with Mayor Jacob Frey
There are 1,500 active duty soldiers waiting for a possible deployment to Minnesota. There are about 3,000 ICE agents deployed to Minneapolis. What do you worry about with all of these armed officers potentially in your city?
“We don’t need more escalation. 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.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem put forward the idea of creating a safe zone for protestors. Or, if those troops come in, did you ever think of telling your residents to stay home?
“First off, a safe zone? I thought the country of America was a safe zone where you could express your First Amendment rights.
“And I mean, if I were to tell our protestors here, the people of Minneapolis, ‘Hey guys, you’re just going to protest in one single park,’ it would not work. That is comical. And that’s not how the First Amendment works in the United States of America. You don’t get to say, ‘Hey, only go to this little tiny section. That’s where you could say whatever you want to say, but the rest of the country, no, you just got to, I don’t know, shut your mouth.’ That’s not how the First Amendment works, so, no, that’s ridiculous. Of course, that wouldn’t work.
“And by the way, people of Minneapolis are protesting peacefully. I can comment on what’s happening in Minneapolis. I’m the mayor of Minneapolis, where people have protested peacefully. I stand by them. And by the way, where they haven’t, to be very clear, there have been consequences. People have been arrested, and we don’t tolerate it.”
Do you regret dropping the F-bomb in your press conference following the killing of Renee Macklin Good?
“I don’t, no. Moments before I went out there for that press conference, I had seen the video of what took place. Seconds before I went out there, Kristi Noem had just stated that the officer was purely acting in self-defense, and just a little while later, she called the victim a domestic terrorist. And so our constituents need people to stand up for them. We need voices that are simply telling the truth. And so, do I regret it? No.
“And as far as the inflammatory nature, you know, I dropped an F-bomb. And we had ICE that killed somebody in our city. And as far as which is more inflammatory, I’d say they’re killing somebody.”
On social media, in videos from the St. Paul church, we see protestors walking through pews, interrupting the sermon, calling parishioners privileged white people. What is your response?
“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. It’s been extraordinary to see neighbors stand behind neighbors, people dropping off food, taking people that would otherwise be concerned about getting ripped away from their family to the grocery store.
“It’s this incredible act over and over again of love that we’re seeing in Minneapolis. And I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never been prouder to be from here.”
“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: that certainly 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.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Karyn Miller-Medzon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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