In a Daily Show segment he called “Signs of Anarchy,” Jon Stewart warned his African American viewers against pointing at people since doing so would identify them as gang members.
The segment was a response to the outrage over Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges posing for a photo with a twice-convicted felon during a get out the vote drive for last week’s elections.
The head of the city’s police union denounced the photo as an invitation to gang violence in the city, and claimed that the mayor had placed police officers in danger by supposedly flashing a “known gang sign.”
Playing a video clip of Hodges and Navell Gordon (a volunteer with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change) canvassing a Minneapolis neighborhood encouraging people to get out and vote, Stewart noted that this is a good thing and “grassroots democracy at its finest.” Then he continued playing the report from KTSP, the ABC affiliate which claimed that a photo taken that day with the mayor and Gordon pointing at each other showed them flashing gang signs.
“All this time, I’ve been the lead-in for a notorious gang member!” Stewart said showing a picture of Stephen Colbert pointing his finger at a Catholic cardinal.
The head of the police union, John Delmonico told a reporter for the TV station, “She’s been around long enough she knows better.”
“Come on,” Stewart said. “She’s held elective office since 2005, whereas pointing, as a gesture, only goes back to literally the very first form of human communication.”
Jon continued pointing out that Hodges was posing with a man who is not in a gang and was “brazenly flashing a not gang sign.”
Stewart then read off his updated list of things that black people do that look suspicious.
Watch the segment in the video below from Comedy Central.
h/t: Mediaite
