Gangs in Olmsted County
Gangs mark territory with graffiti
Fri, Sep 22, 2006
By Janice Gregorson, The Post-Bulletin
A rash of gang graffiti has showed up in parts of southeast Rochester in recent weeks, along with other troubling signs of increased gang tension, said Steve Thompson, gang expert with the Rochester police department.
The graffiti appears at Slatterly and Bear Creek Parks and on the sides of some buildings and street posts along 8 1/2 Street Southeast. Most recently, it filled the side and back of the former Happy Dan's Budget Mart just off Marion Road Southeast.
"It looks like South Central Los Angeles,'' Thompson says of the graffiti on that business.
Thompson said it appears the gangs are marking off their territory, with one group writing over the graffiti of another group. He called it an "alarming sign."
"We don't see that very often in Rochester,'' he said.
Much of the graffiti first surfaced in the last week. Gang signage includes the Sur 13, described as a violent Hispanic gang; the Latin Kings; the VIPS; and the Baby Blue Crips, among others. Writing over gang graffiti is a sign of disrespect, he said.
A sign at the entrance to a mobile home park across the street from Happy Dan's has been written over in black with the words "VIPs Only."
This year has been troublesome for police dealing with street gang activity, Thompson said.
In January, three people were stabbed during a fight between members of the Asian Boyz and Me and My Homiez street gangs at a home in Country Club Manor. Later there was a stabbing at a bowling alley that authorities believe was in retaliation to the earlier fight, and a shooting in the parking lot at a theater complex that involved gang members but has not been ruled gang-related.
Tensions between those two groups have again soared with the reopening of school, he said. Just last Thursday, police responded to a fight involving 30 to 40 gang members at Cimarron Park in the 2000 block of 48th Street Northwest. Weapons were involved and one person was slightly injured, Thompson said. The incident remains under investigation.
Thompson figures that overall, there have been between 10 and 15 serious gang-related incidents this year. Most involved members of the Asian Boyz and Me and My Homiez. However, he said, in recent months, there also has been an increase in gang activity between members of rival Gangster Disciple and Black P Stone gang members.
Evidence shows rise in gang activity in Olmsted County
Fri, Sep 22, 2006
By Janice Gregorson , The Post-Bulletin
Steve Thompson spent every night at the Olmsted County Fair this year.
But it wasn't for fun. It was his job.
The fair can be a hot spot for gang problems, and Thompson is the local gang expert with the Rochester Police Department.
Thompson said members of the Asian Boyz gang and the rival Me and My Homiez or Junior Bloods gang showed up at the fair. Both gangs had caused problems in the community since January but had been quiet for a couple of months.
"It was clear to me that tensions have not gone down,'' he said.
He and another officer worked the fair as gang officers.
"We recognized a potential problem and got right in there and wound up making an arrest,'' he said. "All we did was follow them around until they left. They got tired of us.''
Thompson said what struck him most at the fair was how many people came up to him with comments like, "There aren't any gang problems in Rochester, are there?"
"There are gang problems here. Absolutely,'' he said he told them.
And this year has been particularly troubling, with violent incidents between the Asian Boyz and Me and My Homiez; new signs of rivalry brewing between some Hispanic gangs, and assaultive and threatening behavior between two other rival gangs.
Street gangs first surfaced in Rochester in the early 1990s. Thompson said most of the early gang members have since grown up, gone on to other things, married and have children. Some, he said, have gone on to narcotics sales.
He said there are between 200 and 300 active gang members in Rochester. He estimates there are about 40 of members the Asian Boyz, and 40 in the Me and My Homiez. Other street gangs operating in Rochester include the Baby Blue Crips, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings and Black P Stones, he said. Members range in age from 14 to early 20s.
In late August, Thompson was working a patrol duty shift and responded to a large fight outside a local bar. It involved gang members from St. Paul that had come down to Rochester to party. The fight, he said, was alcohol-induced, but the players "were definitely gang members."
He said that most of the Rochester gangs have connections with gangs in the Twin Cities or Chicago. In recent months, authorities in the Twin Cities say members of the Sur 13 gang have been involved in violent shootings. Thompson said recent graffiti shows there may be a Sur 13 "chapter" in Rochester.
Thompson said that when he first started in patrol in the mid-1990s, gang activity was at a peak in Rochester. Then it quieted down.
Now it's on the rise again. Right now, he said, it's a lot of minor stuff, such as assaults and threats.
"It's the typical juvenile gang member kind of stuff that always has the potential to escalate in a heartbeat to something very serious,'' he said.
But Rochester is no longer part of a state gang strike force. That unit was disbanded in January in the aftermath of funding cuts by the Legislature. Now there is only a Metro Gang Strike Force in the Twin Cities. All the former outstate gang officers were then attached to regional narcotics units. In July, the Rochester police department ended its formal membership in that unit, too.
• Rochester police urge residents to call if they have information about gang activity to share or if they hear about fights brewing. Steve Thompson's direct number is 287-1422.
