POLITICO senior reporter suggests journalists investigating Somali-run daycare centers for fraud may get shot

POLITICO senior reporter Josh Gerstein posted a rather alarming comment in the wake of the investigations and allegations against Somali-run social daycare and healthcare facilities. "At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws," Gerstein said.

Very quickly, Gerstein was called out by other social media denizens who said he was advocating for citizen journalists to get shot during their investigations.

"'You will eventually get shot for trying to hold the government accountable by doing journalism' is a bizarre claim for a journalist to make," said Drew Holden.

The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway said, "1) Stand Your Ground does not permit the murder of door knockers 2) MN is not a SYG state 3) in no world should Somali fraudsters be encouraged to murder taxpaying US citizens for doing the journalism well-funded reporters refuse to do."
 

"1. Minnesota is a duty-to-retreat state outside the home. 2. A journalist merely asking questions at a place of business does not meet the threshold for self-defense, especially deadly force. 3. It’s embarrassing that a random guy on the internet has to explain this to Politico’s 'senior legal affairs reporter.' 4. The only reason you posted this is because you’re fantasizing about Nick Shirley getting shot and killed, but you’re too much of a coward to say it," Bad Hombre wrote.

Stephen L. Miller pointed out, "In a year when maybe the most influential conservative speaker was shot and killed in the neck in front of the whole country in daylight. The most viral assassination in American History. And Josh Gerstein still hit SEND. Do you think he just did that by accident?"

"Politico reporter apparently taking the position that you can murder journalists for knocking on the door of a business," said Emma-Jo Morris.

Gerstein said this was not what he was saying, that he was just observing. "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 said.

Readers added context via Community Notes, pointing out that Stand-Your-Ground laws allow people to take action when they are threatened, not when their potentially fraudulent businesses are being investigated.

Another reader noted that "Minnesota does not allow the possession of firearms in daycare facilities. Furthermore, simply knocking on the door of a public business to ask journalistic questions does not present a deadly threat and does not invoke stand your ground laws."