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Angie Hoffman’s letter to the editor of June 24 has so many exaggerations and untruths that I don’t know where to begin or where to focus.  She lobs many attacks on Jeremy Corey-Gruenes, and, as he is a better thinker and writer than I am, I will let him answer as he sees fit. However, there are several things that she states as true that I can’t let stand. She calls the Black Lives Matter movement a Marxist-led organization.  She needs to stop spending so much time with Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and other right-wing conspiracy mongers. It is classic red baiting, reminiscent of Joe McCarthy. What is so radical in saying that Black lives should matter? If you check the Black Lives Matter website, their goals are clearly articulated, focusing on the issues of social, racial, gender, environmental and criminal justice. Check the website.

Ms. Hoffman attempts to place the blame for the problems of policing on the fact that Democrats are in leadership in Minneapolis and wonders why these leaders did not fire abusive police officers. I suggest that Ms. Hoffman read a June 21 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune explaining the arbitration policy that is written in law that leadership needs to follow.  In fact, Rep. Michael Howard, DFL-Richfield, authored a House arbitration reform bill to change this failing arbitration system, so that abusive police officers would be fired, but it was the Republican Senate that failed to act and went home.

One last thing. I wrote a letter a week ago asking Ms. Hoffman to say his name —  George Floyd. In her recent letter, she writes  “Floyd’s death” twice in context. It seems she still cannot recognize his humanity, cannot say his name, cannot recognize that he was a Black man murdered by police in cold blood, and that what happened in Minneapolis was an outcry, an angry reaction and uprising to this cruel death and the systemic issues that caused it. So, say his name, Angie. His name was George Floyd.

Ted Hinnenkamp

Albert Lea