Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized on Wednesday following comments he made about “East African kids” and juvenile crime in Minneapolis. (Xogmaal Media/Facebook)
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized on Wednesday following comments he made about “East African kids” and juvenile crime in Minneapolis.
Last week, O’Hara spoke to WCCO about juvenile crime in the city and said those involved “aren’t the poor kids from Minneapolis that are our residents, these are kids coming down in mommy’s Mercedes-Benz to Dinkytown, and they don’t know where they are.”
O’Hara elaborated and appeared to identify some of the juveniles, saying “Groups of kids, groups of East African kids that are coming from surrounding communities and not just one community, kind of all over the place.”
By Wednesday, the police chief was gathering with members of the Somali community and publicly addressing his comments.
In a Wednesday video posted by Xogmaal Media, O’Hara said, “Right from the beginning of when I came to this city, the Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me and I appreciate it.”
O’Hara went on to explain that he has been working with the Somali community to “try and address the real problems we have in this city” and he had recently been to crime scenes where young people had died.
“And while talking about that, we have to be honest at times with the problems that we’re having in our community, and we [need] our community to help us fix those problems together because it’s real and it’s serious,” O’Hara said.
“At the same time, if people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that’s caused harm, I apologize and I’m sorry for that because that’s not my intention at all,” he added. “My intention is, however, to address head-on the real problems that we are having and to help keep our kids alive and to work together with our community to continue to do that.”
O’Hara concluded his remarks by thanking the Somali community. At no point in the video did he deny that “East African kids” were involved in the juvenile crime discussed earlier.
Alpha News reached out to the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) for clarification about the chief’s comments. Specifically, Alpha News asked if his original comments about “East African kids” and their involvement in juvenile crime were incorrect.
However, MPD did not immediately respond to a media inquiry.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.