A senior writer for Politico still has his job after he strongly suggested on X that anyone who investigates Somali welfare, daycare, and other fraud in Minnesota might be shot if they “knock on doors.”
Senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein was apparently referring to journalist Nick Shirley, who exposed so-called daycare centers that didn’t have any children under their care. Shirley’s probe, Gerstein wrote, might “intersect” with “stand-your-ground laws.”
But Gerstein erred twice in the post, critics observed. Minnesota is not a stand-your-ground state. And the fraud does not involve “home daycares.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the imprudent X post seriously, claiming that Gerstein urged violence against federal agents who might also “knock on doors” in attempting to track down the African fraudsters.
Doesn’t Understand Minnesota Law
Gerstein invited a hurricane of criticism when he said the state’s supposed stand-your -ground law might be used against “amateur” sleuths tracking fraud, a major problem in the state that inspired pro-Somali GOP Representative Tom Emmer to call for the denaturalization and deportation of the fraudsters.
Shirley’s shoe-leather journalism — knocking on doors and finding that daycare centers lacked kids for whom to care — apparently upset the leftist Politico scribe.
“At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws,” Gerstein wrote on X.
But the senior legal affairs man for far-left Politico apparently doesn’t know anything about legal matters in the Land O’Lakes.
Minnesota is a duty-to-retreat state. A top criminal defense law firm explains that Minnesota has a Castle Doctrine but not a stand-your-ground law. The former permits using “force without retreating when defending yourself inside your own home.” The latter requires one to “retreat if it’s safe to do so before using force in public.” As well, the firm’s website explains, “the ‘duty to retreat’ applies in public places unless you’re in your home; this means you must avoid using force if safely possible.”
Former federal prosecutor Jay Town roasted Gerstein for the mistake. Gerstein, he wrote, didn’t understand stand-your-ground laws.
“This is the dumbest, purely idiotic take on SYG laws…perhaps ever,” he wrote on X:
“Knocking on doors” NEVER creates an imminent fear of harm…thus there is no justifiable need to stand your ground.
Delete your account.
But at least Gerstein has a defense. He isn’t a lawyer, as his fawning Politico biography confesses.
“While not a lawyer, Gerstein’s spent more time in courtrooms and more time reading legal pleadings than many members of the bar,” the biography claims somewhat doubtfully.
Aside from his shallow understanding of stand-your-ground laws, Gerstein doesn’t understand the fraud itself. Shirley did not uncover fraud at “home daycares.”
“No matter how desperately some Leftist influencers are trying to frame it, these are not ‘home day cares,’” X user Jammles wrote over images of state documents:
They are licensed child care centers, as clearly stated in the records.
Some accounts are now claiming the buildings were just offices and that the children were actually placed across a network of home day cares. That is not true.
Minnesota’s licensing makes it clear that each license is issued to a specific, identified center location, not a floating umbrella that can be spread across multiple home providers.
X Users Respond
Knowing he had written something that could and would be interpreted as sanctioning violence, Gerstein attempted to weasel his way out of what he said.
“To observe that something is likely to happen or there’s a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening,” he wrote.
X users weren’t having it.
“Stop calling for the murder of conservatives you terrorist lunatic,” wrote the 240K-follower Auron MacIntyre of The Blaze.
Wrote the 721.4K-follower Clandestine:
Left-wing MSM reporter now is in favor of the 2nd Amendment, because their massive treasonous embezzlement and money laundering scheme is being exposed…
You’re actively calling for Somalis to open fire on American citizens, at a public venue, to cover up widespread fraud…
Another user pulled up an old post from Gerstein in which he implicitly denounced police for claiming that journalists who knock on doors are “stalking.”
ICE Calls Out Gerstein
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced on X that Homeland Security Investigations agents were on the ground in Minneapolis looking for fraudsters. They showed up “at daycares, healthcare facilities, and other suspected sites.”
On Tuesday, ICE responded to Gerstein.
“You would think a ‘Senior Legal Affairs Reporter’ for POLITICO would know better than to tweet something inciting violence against federal agents,” the agency said.
The far-left website will not, apparently, do anything about Gerstein’s erroneous shoot-from-the-hip X post.
