Eden Prairie Parks Not Safe?

Here
is the story I saw last night on channel 5 regarding the sad state of the parks in Eden Fuggin' Prairie.

Eden Prairie residents are becoming concerned about an increase in crime in area parks.

Residents near Nesbitt Park Preserve tell police teens from outside the community are causing problems such as fistfights and graffiti.

"It's almost like they take it over," says Ken Hallonquist of the Nesbitt Park Homeowners Association. "They almost kind of chase you away."

A crowd of nearly 20 youths caused a melee a few weeks ago. Police eventually arrested one young man threatening others with a baseball bat.

Not MPLS. Not even Hopkin(s). Eden Fuggin' Prairie. Not exactly what comes to mind when you think of roving packs of youts (Herman Muster to Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny: "Did you just say 'yout'?") brawling and grafitting a formally nice area.

If you read the small story you will find no details that give any clue to what is actually going on, but the piece last night did get into it. Eden Prairie is home to 700-800 Somali families who are running into problems with youts from MPLS who are apparently reverse-commuting to play basketball at the parks.

It is not clear if it is MPLS Somalis fighting Eden Prairie Somalis or MPLS blacks fighting Eden Prarie Somalis, but there has been a history of bad blood between the latter groups.

For whatever reason, American blacks and Somalis do not get along. Here is an article saying that the biggest problem Somalis are facing is not "Racism" from whites but rather discriminatory behavior by blacks.

"As a general trend, the two groups are having tensions," said Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, a scholar with the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and author of the book, "Creating Africa in America."

Mr. Doerue says his children were picked on and targeted simply because they speak differently.

Accents can also target immigrants as people less familiar with the system and thus more vulnerable to scams, robbery or attack.

Some of the 30 to 40 Somalian families in town have faced other hostilities from black Americans.

It would be interesting to hear from some Eden Prairie residents who have seen the park situation first hand because it sounds like things are out of control.