A reader from Minneapolis has sent this comment in response to our post yesterday on Bowling Green, KY (emphasis below is mine):
Reading this reminds me of some of the comments made by Minnesota residents about the huge Somali population which has been settled in Minnesota:
Everyone in Mpls is fed up with the Somali population abusing the generosity and hospitality of the Midwest. I am from the east coast and predicted the current problems years ago. Although some of the population are assimilating well, I live in the Cedar-Riverside area and I experience hostile, insular, disrespectful behavior especially from Somali men. The Somali leaders have needed to address this for years and refuse to. They are in Minnesota because no other city would allow what transpires in Mn. If they will not assimilate they need to be repatriated to Kenya (or anywhere outside the US) if Somalia is unable to form a government.
MN is peaceful – we must keep it that way. The citizens are much too tolerant and have been fleeced due a high trust level and belief in the goodness of people in general. There is no honor among the thieves that have arrived and squatted. And yes, we need a China one-child policy to stop them from replicating.
MN must attend to its own unemployed citizens. Hennepin County is making dramatic cuts in funding the indigenous poor. Whenever I have been in at Hennepin County to assist clients in applying for benefits, the place is full of Somali women wearing expensive gold jewelry/carrying iPhones/driving BMWs APPYING & RECEIVING ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE! This is not a population that needs any economic assistance. You will also find them shopping in the most expensive department stores. An affront to every Minnesotan without a job or health care. My building is FULL of Somalis on Sec. 8 paying little rent while Minnesotans cannot qualify to pay reduced rent to get into the building. And I am not living in Cedar Square. That mess is spilling over into the entire area which is becoming a ghetto.
Other small examples: Cab drivers won’t pick up gay men, business people if they are carrying liquor-part of the job. Others work at checkout in a grocery store and will not handle pork (!)-no other Muslims are this crazy- or file frivolous lawsuits if the women train to become nurses aids claiming discrimination if they are required to care for male patients (WHAT??!!)-some few examples in addition the ones mentioned by jessej above – the disrespectful and violent youth coming out of Cedar Square and other places.
(The young Somali males, and I mean 5 years old, are not disciplined by the parents so what does one expect at 16. I witness this daily-had one kid yelling and pointing his finger at me giving me orders to go away – haha off of my own apartment floor!!!!!)
BTW- the shopkeepers/business are very unfriendly-refuse to learn and speak English. I was welcoming and tolerant in the beginning having mixed heritage myself. After having traversed the inside of this ethnic group, I support repatriation ASAP. They are unlike any other refugees or immigrants, African, Indian, Asian etc.
Although very polite, I believe Minnesotans in general avoid confrontation at all costs- their refugee “guests” are all about confrontation.
MN needs a self-esteem boost, cohesion, the ability to discern who to be hospitable to and a collective spine to deal with this problem.
This isn’t the first time we have heard an account like this from Minneapolis. We reported a very similar comment here in January 2011 in a post that continues to be one of our most read posts almost every day here at RRW.