Yikes, that sucks he got assaulted for no reason, and the police don't care.

My buddy and I were riding our motorcycles right through there sat night at 2am. Lots of people leaving the bars, but I didn't see any gangs or shady characters.

Wonder if any of the businesses in the area have security cameras that might have covered some of the street at the time? Might be able to provide the cops with some images of the "gang" (not intended to be restrictive to actual membership in an established group of thugs, just meaning the generic term for a "group of thugs" in this case... may not be mutually exclusive, but we don't have enough info here to make the connection)

All I know is that if I'm ever blindsided and attacked like this, I have a feeling I'll cross over to defending myself like a cornered rat in a hurry - and I doubt that I'm going to fight fair! (whether I'm armed or not...)

+1

The concept of "fighting fair" exists for martial arts, and people who haven't been in a real knock-down drag-out combative situation.

There's just no such thing when you are battling for your life or well-being. Amateurs "fight". Professionals end it.

-Mark

If they start it, it's a fair fight when you're able to walk away after they quit fighting (one way or the other)

OK, I talked to my friend for quite a while earlier in the evening to clarify some details. I learned a lot. First, the officer who discouraged him from filing a report was from the University of Minnesota Police Department. I was able to confirm that. It's late right now, so I think he'll be waiting until tomorrow to make a report.

The most interesting and important thing I learned from his experience was that he did everything right and still got the crap beaten out of him. Because the streets were so full of drunk college students and lots of people running around, making noise, he had no way of knowing ahead of time who would attack him and who posed no danger. This was definitely not a situation where he could have avoided trouble by being more aware of his surroundings. He had already passed through and seen many groups of people yelling at one another, being rowdy, and running through the streets. He had even physically bumped into other people because there were so many bodies out on the streets. The vast majority of these other raucous individuals were harmless. It just happened that this group of black guys were out to hurt people.

Shortly before the attack, when my friend noticed the large number of black guys running down the street intersecting his path at 90°, he decided to quickly cross to the opposite side of the intersection and get out of their way as quickly as he could. As he was crossing to get out of their way, some of them ran up behind him and knocked him in the head. Before he even had a chance to turn and see that a few of them were within striking distance, the first punch had already been thrown. After being hit the first time, he was too stunned to move and it all went downhill from there.

Again, he had no reason to believe that these guys were any different than the other wild people running around, so he was crossing as quickly as he could just to be cautious, not because he had any specific reason to believe this particular group was dangerous. In other words, there was no reason to be in condition red or even orange. This was a situation that demanded no more than a condition yellow state of awareness. He was alert in a public place, watching his surroundings and trying to maintain a safe distance from any potential problems. While trying to create distance between himself and the others, a few people ran up behind him quickly in a relatively well-populated area and struck before he knew there was any real threat. And by that time, it was too late.

Apparently, there were twenty or more people in this violent group passing through Dinkytown, but only approximately four individuals actually beat my friend. The others were within close proximity while this occurred, somewhat distracted by the other individual they had all been chasing when they came upon my friend.

Also, my friend said he had a knife on him at the time, but he decided quickly not to pull it out because he was convinced it would not have given him any kind of advantage. It would have been useless against the multiple attackers, he thought. I agree with him there. I can imagine that pulling a knife would have dramatically increased the chance of him getting killed.

...oh, and two more things. The assailants did break my friend's jaw during the beating. He got it X-rayed earlier today (Monday) to confirm that. I don't know how he managed all that talking with a broken jaw, but he did. It sounds like he's going to get it wired shut while the bone heals together again. And I'm not sure what he's going to do about his broken molar. He said he spit the pieces of it out of his mouth while he was running from the bad guys. So I imagine that the oral surgeons will have to reconstruct his tooth somehow.
That really pisses me off.

I find myself with my hand on my pistol when in uncertain terrain....I check to determine that the magazine is in place and sometimes hold the grip ready to draw.

I think in the Twin Cities the rising threat is "Group Attack"...I've begun carring extra mag with this in mind...I had always been satisified with 7 rounds.

The only good news here ( and I say this without ANY PERSONAL experience to back it up) ...is that in my Academic study of the problem the "group of perps" universally respond to the sound of gunfire by fleeing instead of charging in your direction. If you read the reports of Defensive Gun use that seems to be the case.

Yeah, that seems prudent to me.

There were a lot of squads in the area around 3am, now I know why. The university usually sends out a notice whenever a student gets assaulted... haven't heard anything.

I guess I'd be making th media round to anyone who would listen, and keep posing the question what is the U doing to protect it's students on and off campus, if they restrict their options to protect themselves.

I'd be one severely pissed off person making a lot of noise, I'd probably be lawyered up too.

If none of the assaulted people is allowed to file a report, they probably aren't going send notification.

Broken jaw, broken tooth and police that won’t even make a report and investigate the attack. That’s just wonderful. I’ll bet there are ten cameras in the area that got a piece of this action but they are just too lazy to check. I am truly sorry for your friend’s injuries.

I would make sure that the MN Daily hears about this. Is is very important to raise awareness about these types of attacks occurring, yet again. Reminding people to not walk alone, walk in groups, utilize taxis, and to be alert to other people in the area (not only for yourself, but keeping an eye on other people in the neighborhood).

I think that the police should be doing a bait bum or something to get these guys. i don't think it would take more then a couple weekends to convince these tough guys to find something else to do. i remember seeing something about an undercover transit cop in NY that made a ton of busts by playing a drunk bum.

And the best part of this plan is the swat team gets to dress up in there turtle suits and paint the puck in the back of the van

listening to Mpls police scanner tonight:

report of assault of one black male by ten black males at (Cedar-Riverside...now "little Somalia") in front of Palmers Bar 700 Cedar.

ten on one???? I've heard reports of assaults of FORTY ON ONE in Detroit.


Shoot the biggest baddest one first I guess..