Gang violence concerns at Minnesota State Fair

Thanks so much for being with us here on Fox nine all day a somber day for so many people because so many people in Minnesota, specifically in Minneapolis, remember what happened on this day one year ago today marks exactly one year since the shooting at Annunciation Church in school. So leaders today are taking some time to reflect, calling it Remembrance Day to honor all of those impacted by this tragedy. So there will be a community and remembrance event that will happen in Minneapolis. This is happening from one o'clock. We just hit one o'clock right now, but I don't believe that it has started yet. But this will go into about five o'clock this evening and it's happening at Pearl Park. Our Karen Scullin is there and we plan to take you some of it that will be live. So we'll try to do that when we see our cameras up and ready to go. But right now we want to talk about the state fair because as we think about today as well, you think about it being opening day for the Minnesota State Fair. And so I have Emily Pope all here with me to talk about safety at the state fair and concerns over youth gang violence. But Ramsey County Sheriff we know and the attorney have a plan in place. So tell us what we should know about this, right? So this actually started some months ago. Ramsey County Sheriff's deputies got some kind of online tip or they came across online some evidence that there were these two rival gangs that they had known about for some time that we're planning to meet up at the state fair and brawl is kind of how it was described to me, which of course can be dangerous because as two rival gangs work to settle their beef, oftentimes that sometimes turns into, you know, gunfire. And that's something that is a top concern obviously for the sheriff's office and the county attorney. So what they did was just a week ago or two weeks ago, I think they sued the gangs to stop them from coming to the state fair. They filed, it's called a civil gang injunction. So basically they asked a judge to rule that these two gangs could not, uh, do any sort of gang activity on the fairgrounds. They won that and many of the gang members actually just agreed not to come to the state fairgrounds at all. Um, so it's kind of an interesting story. You, I feel like the question that perhaps comes to your head right away is, well, are we going to trust that alleged gang members are going to abide, follow the law? Um, and I asked the county attorney that himself and he says, well, look, even if they don't, this gives law enforcement more of an opportunity to intervene right away before any sort of serious crime happens. And I think I remember because there was a press conference, right? That happened after and I think they were showing us also zones right of where exactly they could and couldn't go. And I believe it was the state fair chief who talked about how some of these officers recognize them too. So if they were to see them possibly show up, that could then of course raise a red flag too. Yeah. So you bring up a couple of good points there. There is the state fairgrounds that they are not allowed to go into. There's also a safety zone surrounding the state fair. So the area right outside the state fair, which they've also had some issues with in the past with shootings right outside the state fairgrounds. Um, and so those two areas are off limits to, they brought this civil action against 10 alleged gang members. They secured that, um, you know, no, they're not going to the state fair for seven of the 10. So, um, if any of the seven are within the state fairgrounds or in that safety zone outside that gives law enforcement enough probable cause to arrest them right then and there without them having like committed some other kind of crime. Um, so that's the big, that's the big enforcement arm that they won here that they're going to be able to deploy if they need to. And then the other thing you brought up, yes, there are specific trained deputies. There are a couple of different, um, organizations or different teams, I suppose, in law enforcement that are at the county level and also at the state level that focus specifically on gangs. And so those people will be at the fairgrounds is what we're told. And if one of the many different types of law enforcement officers that's not necessarily trained in gangs sees one of those alleged gang members, it's not like they can just jump in and take action right there. They have to then call one of the specialized deputies who is trained to recognize these people. And then at that point, that specialized person will decide whether or not, yes, that is, you've correctly identified one of the alleged gang members. I'm going to arrest them or, oh no, you got it wrong. This is just a normal person here having fun at the we're not taking action. So they put that in place to really assure the judge in this case that they're not just going to be there profiling people trying to have that would be a concern probably for people is, you know, then are you just going to be, hey, I think this person looks like, you know, such and such would that that would, I mean, if you're someone in the community and maybe you look like, you know, you don't know if you look like that person, probably not. But for the officer may be identifying that if you look very similar to one of the gang, you know, one of the gang members, how do you know you're not going to be right? And we, I mean, we have to mention that the Ramsey County Sheriff identified these as Somali gangs. And so that is something that they really stress to the judges. Like, we're not just going to be profiling Somali people at the state fair. We're we have specialized people that are trained to recognize these specific alleged gang members. And I find it interesting that you say that, you know, it's not just like a one stop. If an officer sees, you know who he who he or she thinks is a gang member, then they can then arrest that person. It seems like a chain of command there that you have to sort of follow a protocol. But I wonder how long that takes. Like if you call someone and say, hey, I think this might be such and such. I just I'm just curious about the process. I'm imagining they didn't speak on that. No, but you do also have to remember that that this uh sending it up the chain of command like we're talking about. That's if one of these alleged gang members is spotted on the fairgrounds. If if there is anyone committing any crime on the fairgrounds, any deputy state fair police officer is going to respond to that. So this is just, this is again that special kind of law enforcement arm that they won in this court case that allows them to arrest someone, arrest a very specific group of people just for the fact that they are on the fairgrounds or within the safety zone. And then I know you talked about the seven people, but what about the other three? Yeah. So there are, there are, there's one that's out of the country. I've been told by the county attorney and will not be there. And there's the other two, they did not show up to court. And so what that means is it's a default judgment not to get to in the weeds here, but they basically those two will be held to specific conduct. They can go to the state fairgrounds, but they cannot go with any other gang members. They'd have to go like by themselves or with family members. Interesting. Yeah. So like these two other people, they can't go together. As soon as they walk into the safety zone or the fairgrounds together, boom, that's cause for an arrest. They also can't um, instigate any sort of conflict or throw up any gang signs is what the court order says. A lot of in the weeds there, but the other, basically the other two, because they didn't show up to court there, they're held to the original ask from the county attorney's office of like the original conduct that they wanted to kind of crack down on. Um, and the other seven that did show up and some of them retained representation just agreed. Okay, well rather than like get into the weeds on all that, we've just agreed to not show up at all. Okay. You had an interesting task trying to break all of this down. But it is very interesting. And you know, as you mentioned, of course, as we talk about opening day for the state fair, safety is always at the top of mind. So to hear how, you know, just protocol and hear how they're handling things on that side. It's very interesting. So thank you, Emily. We appreciate you breaking that down for us. Okay, right now, as I mentioned, you know, of course it is opening day for the for the Minnesota State Fair, but it is also, uh, one year ago today we had the just it was a horrific day, a tragedy in Minneapolis, the Annunciation school shooting. And so today is a day of day of remembrance. So what you were looking at right now is that happening? So I believe we're gonna make, are we gonna take this in full? Okay, we're gonna take this in full. I think we're gonna sit on this for a second. Let's just take a look.