Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said this week that law enforcement in the area is contending with gang activity tied to Somali American groups, and argued that concerns about being labeled racist are getting in the way of addressing the issue.
Hodges made the comments Thursday during an appearance on FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul’s “FOX 9 All Day.” He said he was speaking plainly about a pattern he has seen throughout his career involving different communities.
“I pride myself on telling the truth. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We’re dealing with Somali American gangs right now. Throughout my life, we’ve dealt with Hmong American gangs, African American gangs, Italian gangs. We’ve dealt with different groups throughout history in this country who are, unfortunately, being involved in gang activity,” Hodges said.
Hodges was careful to say the gang activity does not reflect the broader Somali American community in the Twin Cities area, including in Hennepin County, where Bloomington is located.
“Now, by no means does this mean that every member of the Somali community — Somali American community is involved in these activities, because they’re not. The vast majority of Somalis, just like the rest of us — Somali Americans, go to work every single day, busting their butt, trying to make a living. And when you are really involved in the community like I am, and I’ve been like this before I put this uniform on, I see these people, every day, working, busting their butt to make their American Dream,” he said.
Hodges pushed back on the idea that naming the issue amounts to racism, saying he would rather focus on solving the problem than avoid talking about it.
“So this — to say it’s racist, it’s like, no, we’re not — I’m not going to go down that road. And others can choose to do that. But, ultimately, if you don’t identify a problem, there’s no way you’re going to fix it. And it’s just, people are worried about calling something racist more than they are fixing the problem, and it’s just ridiculous to me,” Hodges said.
He closed his remarks by cautioning against broad generalizations about any community based on the actions of a small number of people, saying residents shouldn’t be “pegging people and dumping them into groups based on a few people.”
