Last week in Minneapolis, cops and a local news station accused Mayor Betsy Hodges of throwing up gang signs with a convicted criminal. She was actually posing with a campaign volunteer, and the "known gang sign" is known to most people as "pointing."

Now Jon Stewart has gotten hold of #Pointergate, and he can barely repeat the accusations against the mayor without laughing.

If pointing is a gang sign, Stephen Colbert and every human baby engaging in the most primal form of human communication must be dangerous criminals! Shocking!

Stewart eventually regained his composure and identified the real motivation behind Pointergate: Mayor Hodges has recently criticized cops and made reforming the police department part of her platform, so law enforcement fed the "scandalous" photo to a conservative-leaning local news station.

Good plan. No possible way it could backfire on you and make you a laughingstock in the national media. It certainly doesn't give the appearance of racism, either.

[h/t Mediaite]