Recent park violence has Brooklyn Park police searching for answers to a 'complex situation'

Recent fights between large groups of young people in Brooklyn Park city parks have created a challenge for police who are seeking to balance the right for people to gather with keeping parks safe.

"We don't have the golden answer," Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Elliot Faust said. "It is not illegal to gather at a park. That is what they are for. Large groups of young people have lots of energy. When numbers are added, energy increases. Most of the time it's good energy, but it can turn negative and turn negative quickly."

That is what happened Monday night, when law enforcement chased 300 to 400 people out of a Maple Grove park, only to have the crowd reassemble in Brooklyn Park's Central Park. Events started peacefully, Faust said, but then there was loud music and chanting and fights broke out.

By 9:30 p.m., the chaos escalated. Officers declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and began dispersing the crowd by making several announcements telling people to leave, Faust said. One juvenile was assaulted and a second was hit by a car as the event broke up. In 30 minutes, the park was clear as officers walked those gathered off the property, Faust said.

Monday's incident was the second in Brooklyn Park this month. On June 9, a similar incident played out at River Park and continued at Noble Sports Park. Police shut down both parks for the night.

Faust equated the park violence to street racers who spontaneously take over intersections, which is illegal. But groups using social media to coordinate takeovers of park pavilions, which is not inherently illegal, have created a new and "complex situation," and awkwardness around how police can and should respond.

Nobody was cited or arrested in either park incident. Heavy-handed policing — writing citations — could have led to worse results, Faust said.

"That could turn into a riot if you do it wrong," he said. "We are trying to use the least aggressive way to de-escalate things. We are not going in with hats and bats. We are using all the resources we have to make sure everyone's rights are adhered to. We are trying to come up with strategies and figure out the right things to do."

That could include leaning more on the violence interrupters the city hired in 2021 to help quell crime and violence. But that has become a political flash point in the city of 86,000 residents.

For the past two years, the nonprofit Minnesota Acts Now, headed by Bishop Harding Smith, provided the service and was credited with reducing violent crime at the hot spots of 63rd and Zane avenues N. and Brookdale Drive and Yates Avenue, where there have been two homicides in the past two years.

But this spring, newly elected Mayor Hollies Winston said the city needed a new model, so the City Council awarded the $600,000 contract to residents' group Village BP. Smith and the mayor have clashed over the decision.

Violence interrupters have the task of trying to head off crime by occupying spaces and talking with would-be troublemakers before they act. They work independently but in concert with police, Faust said, adding that the city is looking for ways to use them more effectively.

"They are the de-escalation experts. That is what they do," Faust said. "We can send in resources proactively as opposed to reactively. Violence interrupters are a part of that. This can't just fall on the shoulders of police."