Video After The Jump
(CNN) While protests on Saturday were mostly peaceful, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was met with a chorus of boos after telling a group of demonstrators he did not support abolishing the city police department.
Multiple videos on social media show the confrontation, which took place when protesters marched to Frey's home and called for him to come out, according to CNN affiliate WCCO-TV. Protesters asked Frey directly if he supported defunding the Minneapolis Police Department.
When Frey replied that he did not, the crowd booed him as he walked away. They also chanted "Go home, Jacob, go home" and "shame."
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Frey said the mayor is "unwavering in his commitment to working with Chief (Medaria) Arradondo toward deep structural reforms and uprooting systemic racism. He does not support abolishing the police department."
The 38-year-old mayor was sworn into office in 2018 and is the second youngest in the city's history. Frey was an employment and civil rights attorney before taking office, according to the city's website.
One of the issues he ran on was police reform. Part of his platform included introducing use of force reforms, implicit bias training, de-escalation techniques, and officer accountability, according to Ballotpedia.
His website says he has strengthened the police department's body-worn camera policy but did not give further specifics on steps taken by the mayor to improve relations between officers and the community.
Frey told WCCO that he supports "massive structural reform" to revise a racist system and addressing "inherent inequities."
The confrontation between Frey and the protesters comes as the thousands of people across the nation are calling for police reform and protesting the deaths of unarmed African Americans, sometimes by law enforcement. The most recent deaths include George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
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