When woke oppress woke, we've come to a sorry pass

Neighbors could hear it from two blocks away, the hatred, the anger. It didn't sound like a typical Pride event, they said, which is usually about love and acceptance, maybe even acceptance of people who have different views.

The chaos from Loring Park on Sunday was a quintessential moment in the Minneapolis of today; confused, irrational and violent. No weapons were used, they explained.

But violence was what it was.

During the event, which was attended by council member Andrea Jenkins, a Black, trans woman very familiar with the people who organized the event, an argument broke out between Jenkins and numerous protesters. She wasn't doing enough to curb police violence on Black people, they said; never mind that Jenkins was one of the people who stood up and called for defunding the Police Department.

So there it was, woke vs. woke in a Minneapolis park.

Jenkins tried to leave the park, according to reports, but her car was surrounded by the protesters, who chanted, screamed obscenities and tried to force Jenkins to agree to a half dozen — and ever expanding — list of demands, including that she call for the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

At first, Jenkins was indignant, even dishing back some smack to the thugs who were standing in front of her car. But it went on for so long — perhaps 90 minutes — that Jenkins asked them to order from Chipotle. The protesters then argued whether they should provide a meal to their hostage, or perhaps she should buy a meal for them because of her large salary as a public servant.

Believe it or not, that was as lucid as the protesters got.

Jenkins, obviously weary and frightened in the videos the group posted on the internet, relented and scratched her signature below the list of demands, many of which she has no control over as a City Council vice president.

The sheep bleated in celebration.

But no one should feel good about this abhorrent behavior. And every Democrat who rightfully condemns the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump loyalists should just as loudly condemn this.

"I don't care if you are a Democrat, a Republican or a socialist, if you believe in democracy you should speak out against this," Frey told me Wednesday. "It's not in the First Amendment that you can hold someone under duress and force them to sign something. It was anti-democratic, what we saw."

This is not an anomaly. Public officials often tell me horrific stories of abuse from both the radical right and the looney left. Stalking, violence. People peeking in their windows at home. One official said someone threatened to rape her in front of her children.

Nothing seems out of bounds now, for either side. Everything is somehow justifiable. But storming a building is not the act of a patriot, and holding someone hostage is not the act of a progressive. They are acts of cowards and criminals.

Jon Tevlin is a former Star Tribune columnist.