A Minnesota mayor denounced a local TV station's claim she threw up a gang sign while posing for a picture with a community activist, the Star Tribune reported.
The Nov. 1 photograph shows Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges with her thumb up and her index finger pointing at a man reportedly named Navell Gordon, of the nonprofit Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, who is shown pointing back at the mayor with the same gesture.
ABC affiliate KSTP ran the photo in a story last Thursday that said "law enforcement sources" were outraged because the mayor was flashing a sign belonging to a gang from North Minneapolis. Police alerted the station to the photo after they found it on the man's Facebook page.
KSTP did not mention Gordon's name, but said the man next to Hodges was convicted for drug and firearm possession and is currently on supervised probation.
"She can't be that naïve, I cannot imagine," retired Minneapolis cop Michael Quinn told the ABC affiliate. "She is legitimizing these people. She is legitimizing gangs who are killing our children in Minneapolis and I just can't believe it. It hurts."
The station released a statement Friday standing by the original story.
A spokeswoman for Hodges said Friday the mayor was simply "pointing at" Gordon when they took a picture together at the get-out-the-vote event in North Minneapolis. The event included meeting people who at one time may have been on the wrong side of the law.
"It was a diverse group, including people who have made mistakes in their past," reads a statement from Hodges' office, the Star Tribune reported. "The more supportive that we all can be of people who are making better choices now, the better off we all will be in the future."
After the story ran last week, Twitter exploded with protests against the KSTP story, including pictures of public figures using similar gestures with #pointergate in the captions.
Gordon, 22, said in an interview that working for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change is helping him turn his life around.
"I was actually blessed to even be with the mayor," Gordon said according to the Sun Tribune. "But yes, we are pointing at each other."
