A Minneapolis sheriff has triggered an uncomfortable conversation by saying out loud what you are not supposed to talk about in Minnesota. “Out of control” gangs of Somali youths are terrorizing the city, and the mayhem is poised to get worse.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher released a livestream video on July 6 decrying widespread violence by Somali gang members over the Fourth of July weekend. He also took the opportunity to criticize media outlets in the Twin Cities and the state for refusing to cover the problem.
Fletcher “stated that the Somali gangs are responsible for at least 14 murders in the last two years as well as over 100 shootings – many of them at high-profile events like graduations and the State Fair. Fletcher also said in his promo video that he heard from a Minneapolis police officer who said that 20 percent of their homicides are now Somalis,” local news site Alpha News reports.
The situation is blowing up right in front of the public eye.
‘It’s All About Ego for 99% of It’
“Investigators say Somali gang violence is growing quickly and now spans the metro [area], with 12 Somali gangs tracked from Minneapolis and St. Paul to St. Cloud, Apple Valley and Burnsville. Most of the violence involves guns, according to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office,” Fox-9 TV in Minneapolis reports. “Authorities say the gangs are still young and growing, with about 300 people involved right now.”
Ramsey County Deputy Ben Seidel said the Somali youth gangs don’t operate like traditional inner-city gangs in the sense of being motivated by money. “From what I’ve seen… it’s all about showboating. It’s all about ego for 99% of it. They aren’t selling narcotics. It’s all about just gloating,” Seidel states in the video.
There’s a history to Somali gang violence in Minneapolis that explains the seeming novelty of these officers’ remarks. In blue-dominated Minnesota, criticizing the Somali community in any way is immediately defined as racist. The “R card” has been so weaponized in the state that health-care fraud was allowed to flourish for years, which may have cost American taxpayers up to $9 billion.
There is nothing new about Somali gangs in Minnesota. They have been identified as a growing problem for 20 years or more. And it has never sounded like child’s play. Every few years, the issue is ventilated, only to recede amid de rigueur pressure from “anti-racist” organizations and personalities.
The City of Minneapolis commissioned a study in 2007 after a series of robberies by Somali teens in 2005. As Minnesota Public Radio detailed at the time:
“The report’s author, consultant Shukri Adan, presented her findings to members of the city council.
“Adan says at first it was thought the Somali youth were involved in loosely organized groups of ‘troublemakers.’ However, Adan says as these young people ended up in jail, they met established gang members and learned from them how to organize.
“‘They’re very sophisticated and they’ve adapted some of that into the Somali gang structure. But for the Somali gangs that I’ve identified, they were specifically Somalis and all their membership were Somalis, even though they had associations with other gangs.'”
Yet leftist MPR made sure to point out that “[t]he report says gang activity is relatively small. Statistics from the Minnesota Gang Strike Force identifies 52 Somali gang members – less than one percent of all known gang members in Minnesota.”
Three years later, the Somali youth had moved on to serious organized criminal activity.
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