MINNEAPOLIS — Protests in the Uptown neighborhood in the wake of Winston Smith's death have many residents and business owners on edge.
City leaders are working to gain control of the neighborhood, but say they don't have enough manpower.
From hotrodders doing spinouts to gunshots, chaotic scenes have become all too common in the Uptown neighborhood in the afterhours of recent protests.
"This is not about peaceful protests. When you take a gun out, you’ve gone well beyond peace." said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Thirty-two gunshots were fired from the driver of a vehicle late Wednesday night while doing donuts in the middle of the intersection at Lagoon and Hennepin - raising major concerns for those who live nearby.
"There’s concerns in not knowing what’s going to happen, that there’s no sense of control," said Uptown resident Bill Davis.
City Council President Lisa Bender said that "control" is in the hands of Mayor Frey.
“The drag racing incident in Uptown is an unfortunate example of this problem which has increased in the Twin Cities. MPD is responding to these incidents and has been setting up road barriers on weekends as a deterrent. Specific questions about MPD operations should be directed to the Mayor’s office as the Mayor has complete control over MPD per the city charter.”
When asked why these violent acts were being allowed to happen, Mayor Frey responded, "I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” He went on to say, "You’ve seen this massive attrition that we’ve seen from the department over this last year, we’ve lost as much as a third of our police officers - that has an impact.”
KARE 11 asked the mayor if there have been any discussions to recruit more police to which he responded, "a ton of discussions... you can't hire a cop off of Amazon, you’ve got to make sure that they’re trained, they’re recruited, they’re sworn in, that all takes time.”
"From the very beginning, I've talked about a 'both and' approach, not defunding or getting rid of police, but making sure that we can instill accountability in everything that they're doing," said Frey.
As frustrating as some of these acts may be, regardless of the motives behind them, for those who call the neighborhood home, they’re sticking together in hopes of better days ahead.
"Everybody in my neighborhood, we’re here because we got each other’s backs," said Davis.
The mayor says they're partnering with officers from neighboring departments, working with federal agencies like the FBI and ATF on investigations to curb some of the crime in the area.
They're also talking with community activist groups to help de-escalate crime as the city works to recruit more police.