Politics & Government
'Thuggery': Ex-MN Gov. Calls Out Protesters At Klobuchar Rally
The former Republican governor said they "trampled on our nation's Constitution by using the power of free speech to deny it to others."
ST. LOUIS PARK, MN — Former Minnesota Republican Gov. Arne Carlson called out the actions activists took to shutdown an Amy Klobuchar campaign rally in St. Louis Park Sunday night, labeling it "thuggery." The incident occurred just hours before the Senator from Minnesota decided to suspend her presidential campaign on Monday.
The rally was canceled after protesters swarmed Klobuchar's stage in St. Louis Park High School. The activists demanded that Myon Burrell, a man sentenced in the 2002 murder of an 11-year-old girl, be released.
The demonstrators say Burell was wrongfully convicted.
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Klobuchar was the Hennepin County Attorney when Burrell was convicted. Activists want her to drop out of the presidential race over the life prison sentence Burrell is now serving.
"No doubt the protesters feel empowered and victorious," Carlson wrote in a public Facebook post.
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"But, do they really know what they did? They trampled on our nation’s Constitution by using the power of free speech to deny it to others. Their actions are no better than those employed by despots throughout history. We all have causes we believe in and our democracy is built on the notion of free expression and the right to use that freedom to effect change. But, we are not guaranteed results."
Late last month, after the case began to resurface in the news, the current Hennepin County attorney issued a statement defending the conviction.
"The protesters believe in the innocence of Myron Burrell who was successfully prosecuted in 2002 by the County Attorney’s office then headed by Amy Klobuchar," Carlson continued. "They may be right. They may also be wrong. But the remedy is not to correct a wrong with another wrong."
"It would be far more effective for them to collect the evidence relative to innocence, meet with Senator Klobuchar as offered, and then proceed through legal channels and the media to obtain another trial or declaration of innocence. But what they did at the rally was thuggery and they lost the good will that they needed to overturn the verdict."
Carlson was governor of Minnesota from 1991 until 1999.
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