With illegal street racing becoming more popular throughout the city, the police are trying to stop races before they cause any harm to the community.
"Tons of complaints, people are outraged," Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson said about the races. "Minneapolis should be able to handle it, but they don't have enough resources."
Hutchinson joined News Talk 830 WCCO's Henry Lake to discuss illegal street racing in the city.
While street racing seems to have always been around in suburban areas, it has started to become more prominent in Minneapolis over the last few years. Hutchinson acknowledged that he enjoys cars but also that the city is not the place to be doing dangerous things with them.
"I'm a car guy. I like cars. I like fast cars," Hutchinson said. "There is a time and place, and the city of Minneapolis or any urban or suburban area is not the place to do it. We all know that."
Steve Marsh of Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine had recently written a piece of street racing in the metro area after embedding himself with fellow street racers.
Marsh said that what he found was "It's usually young men showing off for each other on social media." However, he did acknowledge that the events have caused issues in the community, with people losing their lives and getting injured.
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Hutchinson said that one of the main reasons they have issues when these people gather is that they aren't all there for just cars.
"The big part of the problem is some of the characters that are partaking in this aren't just into cars, they're into other things as well," Hutchinson said. "They get into beef; there's fights; there's shootings. If people just want to hang out and have nice cars and show them off and act responsible, look, I'm all for it."
The driver that Marsh found himself with was identified in the story as E. When it comes to the incidents that happened this summer, Marsh said the people he was with weren't happy about what had happened.
"A lot of them were bummed out that their time for having fun has gotten people hurt and drawn attention to them as this symbol for something wrong with our city," Marsh said.
But for Hutchinson, all it takes is one person doing something stupid, and chaos can ensue.
"When you start doing burnouts and affecting other people's lives, look what happened last summer, two people were hit," Hutchinson said. "It's dangerous."
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This was also acknowledged by Marsh, who, while seeing the inner workings of the street racing crowd, has still seen the issues they cause.
"These cars are a nuisance, they are noisy, and there have actually been people who have gotten killed in crossfire with some gang activity," Marsh said.
While Marsh was in the car with E, he felt that E had complete control over the vehicle. But Hutchinson pointed out that none of the drivers they run across are not trained.
"These people aren't professional drivers, they think they are, but they're not," Hutchinson said.
Many in the city have been working to find solutions for the racing so that more innocent lives are not put at risk. For the drivers that Marsh spent time with and Hutchinson, they seem to have a similar idea.
"Let's find a place for these people to show off their cars and have a little fun but do it safely and legally," Hutchinson said.
