Bloomington, MN- Crime/Possible gang presence? (statistics, gangs, activity)

[MSMCGirl]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

my guess is they were part of the notorious Cakeater Posse looking to expand their reign of terror.

Ha ha....that made me LOL (and it's not like me to use the abbreviation LOL)!

[west336]

I read YOUR post and no others (yet), and this is my response:

I HAVE heard of a friend of mine from getting mugged at gunpoint by his high school compadre (both Bloomington students)! I also know Bloomington to be a much milder version of even the UBER suburb of Schaumburg, IL (a quintessential sprawl-urbia yet has pockets of moderate violence). So it's both, really.

NOW.....coming from somebody who currently lives in the dreaded East-side of Cleveland which has MUCH worse crime rates and MUCH worse ghetto feel to it, I almost never encounter that kind of attention (even as the only white dude in what feels like a long long long way!). If a group of brothers motioned to me to fight, I'm the kind of dumba$$ to actually fall for it and get my a$$ kicked...... 6 times out of 10. If they were gangsters (I use that term lightly), and ESPECIALLY if they were under 18, they very well may have been trying to get initiated into a gang by beating someone's a$$. This ALSO has happened to me, in Columbus, OH -- and those kids were 13, 14, and probably an 18 yr. old "enforcer".

Is this scary? Yes, it is. These kids are stupid as rocks and they have a lot to prove, so don't let them have a reason to use excessive force. Ignore them like you tried to do and if you start getting whacked, get into the fetal position and just wait until it's over. It's FAR better than trying to take 3+ guys at one time (I've tried twice and lost twice) and they usually get over it relatively quickly. Is it dangerous and does it suck? Totally. But it's NOT life-threatening unless YOU do something stupid like pull a knife or something.

Be smart. Use your judgement. Play it cool........you'll be fine (even if it's "just" Bloomington)

P.S. why does WHERE this kind of thing happens matter at all? If somebody was murdered in Lakeville would that be less "gangster" than somebody being beaten badly in Minneapolis.....or Chicago? Forget the cliches.....U.S. cities are just unpredictable.

[west336]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

Throwing up their fingers and motioning with their feet?? How does one motion with their feet?

Also, are you a man or a woman? The reason they were gesturing for you to come over could very dramatically based on your answer.

Don't be naive....there are "gangsters" in the suburbs, and Bloomington is no exception. Whether it's the Gangster Deciples or the Mickey Mouse Club means nothing if they are up to no good and have lots to prove. Not all crime happens in the inner city (even in the lovely Victory neighborhood!).

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

Do you have a source for this statement or is it simply your personal opinion?

Feel free to use Google, you will get about 1,000,000 hits on Twin Cities Gang activity. You can also call the police department in any town and ask about their gang task forces, or you can drive around various towns and see evidence of gangs-territory markings, etc.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Feel free to use Google, you will get about 1,000,000 hits on Twin Cities Gang activity. You can also call the police department in any town and ask about their gang task forces, or you can drive around various towns and see evidence of gangs-territory markings, etc.

That is so lame. First of all, you alleged that most gangs in the TC were not violent and that statement is what I was challenging. Then this is your response? It's totally NON-responsive. This is not how it works. It works like this. You make a point, you support it. Without any support, we'll just assume that it's simply another one of your baseless assumptions. I've seen you do this repeatedly. You make some wild statement which has no basis in fact, then tell others to research it.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Feel free to use Google, you will get about 1,000,000 hits on Twin Cities Gang activity. You can also call the police department in any town and ask about their gang task forces, or you can drive around various towns and see evidence of gangs-territory markings, etc.

I think that tells more about peoples' paranoia than it does about the actual gang problem. Although I recognize there is some gang activity, I'm pretty convinced it is way overblown. Just because you see a small group of black kids hanging out on a street corner does not automatically mean they are in a gang and likely about to mug somebody or make a drug transaction.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by west336

Don't be naive....there are "gangsters" in the suburbs, and Bloomington is no exception. Whether it's the Gangster Deciples or the Mickey Mouse Club means nothing if they are up to no good and have lots to prove. Not all crime happens in the inner city (even in the lovely Victory neighborhood!).

I don't remember making a statement of opinion one way or another on this thread so I'm not sure what it is that you're "attacking". I very seriously asked how someone "motions with their feet" as the visuals that consistently sprang to mind when trying to figure it out was (a) someone doing an impression of a raging bull about to stampede, (b) someone stomping like a spoiled schoolgirl, or (c) someone using their foot to gesture for a person across the street to come over- all of which seemed absurd.

I similarly asked whether the OP was a man or a woman, as a woman that's getting gestured should probably just feel flatterred if not slightly annoyed (assuming all the group did was gesture/cat-call), but with a guy the group was probably intending to either hit him up for change, money, cigarette, etc. (and I'm using 'hit him up for' as in 'request'), or possibly try and mess with him in some way or fashion- either way this is not uncommon behavior for any group of young males, and I wouldn't recommend someone not familiar with an area to just walk up to a group of young males and ask what it is that they can be helped with whether in inner-city Minneapolis or Waconia, MN- young males do stupid sh** everywhere, I know my buddies and I definitely did in Sioux Falls, SD, which people not familiar with the area are often shocked to hear about if they have an idyllic view of Sioux Falls as nothing but a large family-friendly suburban Shangri-La or something.

So, you're preaching to the choir. But I do think the term "gang" gets used too often/broadly/generically to refer to a 'scary' idea of a group of poor young minority males that could just be normal teenagers trying to look cool in front of their friends, whether in the city, suburbs, and even rural areas nowadays. I don't think I've ever heard the term "gang" applied to white kids in all honesty, but there are lots of white kids doing things that would qualify them to be deemed a 'gang' if they were only minorities, with or without the gun violence.

[west336]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

I don't remember making a statement of opinion one way or another on this thread so I'm not sure what it is that you're "attacking". I very seriously asked how someone "motions with their feet" as the visuals that consistently sprang to mind when trying to figure it out was (a) someone doing an impression of a raging bull about to stampede, (b) someone stomping like a spoiled schoolgirl, or (c) someone using their foot to gesture for a person across the street to come over- all of which seemed absurd.

I similarly asked whether the OP was a man or a woman, as a woman that's getting gestured should probably just feel flatterred if not slightly annoyed (assuming all the group did was gesture/cat-call), but with a guy the group was probably intending to either hit him up for change, money, cigarette, etc. (and I'm using 'hit him up for' as in 'request'), or possibly try and mess with him in some way or fashion- either way this is not uncommon behavior for any group of young males, and I wouldn't recommend someone not familiar with an area to just walk up to a group of young males and ask what it is that they can be helped with whether in inner-city Minneapolis or Waconia, MN- young males do stupid sh** everywhere, I know my buddies and I definitely did in Sioux Falls, SD, which people not familiar with the area are often shocked to hear about if they have an idyllic view of Sioux Falls as nothing but a large family-friendly suburban Shangri-La or something.

So, you're preaching to the choir. But I do think the term "gang" gets used too often/broadly/generically to refer to a 'scary' idea of a group of poor young minority males that could just be normal teenagers trying to look cool in front of their friends, whether in the city, suburbs, and even rural areas nowadays. I don't think I've ever heard the term "gang" applied to white kids in all honesty, but there are lots of white kids doing things that would qualify them to be deemed a 'gang' if they were only minorities, with or without the gun violence.

Maybe I misinterpreted what you were saying (shocker, right?), but I thought you were indicating that this couldn't possibly happen in Bloomington because ........whatever.

I'm not sure what your point is about gangs (or cliques), but they are literally everywhere and it's not always a non-white thing (although usually, but Russians have gangs here, for ex.).

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by west336

Maybe I misinterpreted what you were saying (shocker, right?), but I thought you were indicating that this couldn't possibly happen in Bloomington because ........whatever.

I'm not sure what your point is about gangs (or cliques), but they are literally everywhere and it's not always a non-white thing (although usually, but Russians have gangs here, for ex.).

OK, maybe I should have said "ethnic minority". Coincidentally, some Russian guys I went to high school with were responsible for a string of 30+ armed robberies of convenience stores on my side of town before they were caught. But even then I don't remember local news outlets referring to them as a "gang"- it seems the verbiage for white people (whether youth or adults, even if immigrants) tends to be "organized crime", "mafia", "mob", etc. vs. the more "primitive" connotations assigned to nonwhite youth/adults e.g. "gangs", "tribal" fighting (often heard in reference to African immigrants), "cliques" (generally defined as sub-groups of gangs that are "less organized" or unaffiliated and younger), etc.

[Midwesterns45]

Originally Posted by Thegonagle

Was it just high school kids, or were there older guys there, too?

If it was all young'uns, I doubt you saw gang members. More likely a group of young black friends with nothing better to do but test their "power" to intimidate you. My white friends and I did the same (like yelling stuff, "aggressively" asking for cigarettes, refusing to get out of peoples way on the sidewalk, etc.) when we were hanging in our own "gang." We never had an intention of mugging anyone, but we were teenage kids with no adult supervision being a-holes because we had nothing better to do.

If that's all it is, then see it for what it is, and don't let the kids intimidate you.

The kids moving/gesturing their feet were most likely in their late teens/early 20s. The kid luring me in with his hands looked much younger. I'm 19 but look much younger so maybe he thought drawing me in with his guidance instead of the older guys wouldn't feel so stressful for me.

By Camden Northsider (c) someone using their foot to gesture for a person across the street to come over- all of which seemed absurd.

^^ That's not what I said or meant.