Sheriffs and police chiefs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area are raising alarms about "east African and Somali" gangs in the area, describing a recent increase in violent shootings that they say directly involves the Somali-American community. The first Somali-American to be elected mayor in the state of Minnesota calls those statements "irresponsible at best, and at worst, dangerous." Instead of targeting Somali gangs, St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohomad says the answer to the violence is to start banning guns.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges, along with Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, Eden Prairie Police Chief Matt Sackett, and Edina Mayor Todd Milburn held a press conference on Tuesday highlighting some of the recent violence committed by Somali gangs in the area, which they say is not driven by the drug trade or any other criminal enterprises.
"They're coming from two-parent homes, living in apartment buildings with $3,500 a month rent, driving [BMWs] and Mercedes, and all these luxury cars," Hodges said. "These kids have come from good homes and they have money. They're living in houses that cost more than my mortgage. So they're out here simply shooting each other based on social media beef, period."
Hodges also singled out Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and decried her policy of declining to charge people who were initially pulled over in petty misdemeanor traffic stops.
"The Somali American gangs are not dealing in drugs, so there is no drug nexus here to, that allows us, our law enforcement to stop someone from exercising their constitutional right until after they've committed a felony like shooting at people in the street or if they get caught with one of these switches," Hodges said. "I wish it was more complex, but like I said, there's no drugs. We're not finding drugs, we're not finding big, big stashes of cash. You're not finding any of that."
The sheriff and police chief want to see more cooperation between the various local departments around the Twin Cities, but say that they need members of the community to step up as well.
Besides the current lack of a strong task force, Hodges and Milburn also say an overall "lack of cooperation" from witnesses and victims is stunting progress.
"It's very clear to us in our Edina cases that we have witnesses, we have victims who know exactly what happened, are not being forthcoming with what they know, and that's hampering our investigations," Milburn said.
Mayor Mohamad could have responded to these comments in any number of ways. She could have urged the Somali-American community to cooperate with law enforcement, encouraged parents to keep a close watch on their children and impose zero-tolerance policies for criminal behavior in their homes, or even decried the gang violence while noting that it's coming from a small portion of the Somali-American community.
Instead, she took offense at the law enforcement officers calling out "Somali gangs."
Nadia Mohamed, the Democrat mayor of St. Louis Park, MN, wants you to STOP criticizing the Somali gangs for shooting people. Her solution? She wants to BAN guns instead. You can't make this sh*t up. https://t.co/cl3YJCAr36
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 6, 2026
A crime is a crime is a crime is a crime. But what the rhetoric you are pushing, at best is irresponsible, at worst is dangerous. So you may be wondering, hey Mayor, how can we solve for this then? How can we have conversations that are effective, that can actually get something done? And the answer is easy.
Ban guns.
How are these 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds getting access to guns? Like, we are reeling year after year, year after year, month after month, shooting after shooting. It is not good enough to point fingers anymore. To pick on a community that is already reeling from previous rhetoric, anti-Somali rhetoric, is low-hanging fruit, right?
Wrong.
First, if Mohamad is paying any attention to what's happening in Somalia, she knows that the country is awash in illegal guns even though it has essentially banned gun ownership among the civilian population. Banning guns wouldn't be the answer even if we didn't have the Second Amendment.
But we do, of course, and it's a very bad look for Mohamad to suggest that the right to keep and bear arms is the reason why Somali-American teens keep shooting one another. In fact, if she's worried about anti-Somali rhetoric, she did herself and the community no favors by treating an enumerated right protected by the Constitution with so much contempt.
How are those teens getting ahold of guns? Through criminal means, obviously. Theft, straw purchases, maybe even family and friends. And if Chief Hodges is correct, then these teens have plenty of money to spend on a black market gun thanks to mommy and daddy, who might want to keep a closer eye on where their kid's spending money is going.
I have trouble curbing my late-night snacking, but I don't think banning cookies is the answer. It starts with self-control, and an honest conversation with myself about what my bad habits are doing to my health. The same is true of the gang violence in the Somali-American community. If leaders like Mohamad can't have that honest conversation about what these gang members are doing to her community and the community at large, then no one should be surprised if this violence continues... at least until the broader community says "enough" and cracks down on these gangs.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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