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Blong Yang's Embarrassing Sham of a Public Hearing

Minneapolis Police cleared out the protesters from street in front of the 4th Precinct this morning. Below is an account of the public hearing that was carefully orchestrated to justify it.

Yesterday, the Minneapolis City Council's Public Safety Committee took up the seemingly routine procedural matter of amending their meeting agenda. Council Member Palmisano--with a wink and a nod from committee chair Blong Yang who represents the area that includes the 4th Precinct--proposed they allow public testimony regarding the ongoing protests occurring in front of the 4th Precinct over the shooting of an unarmed man named Jamar Clark. This last minute addition to the agenda made it practically impossible to give testimony on the topic unless you were already present for the meeting.

Fortunately for opponents of the 4th Precinct protest, committee chair Blong Yang (and presumably others on the committee) made sure to invite a specially selected group to give testimony painting a uniformly negative picture of the protest (complaints of traffic, parking, crime, smoke, drugs, drinking, etc). The committee's lone voice of dissent was CM Cam Gordon, who worried "if we take up this topic now, what about people who would have come if they knew they had an opportunity to give public comment and may not actually be here now?"