We are angered and disappointed by revelations Wednesday that roving bands of Somali youngsters are mugging vulnerable white people in the area around Kennedy Park.

The news seems to go hand in hand with unofficial reports we’ve been receiving since last summer of Somali children driving white kids out of the skate park downtown and of Somali children stealing from downtown convenience stores.

It’s a growing pattern of lawlessness which must be condemned.

The attacks, according to Lewiston Police Deputy Chief James Minkowsky, follow a similar pattern. Boys and young men carry sticks and rocks which they use to intimidate their victims. They threaten their targets until they give up something — money, bicycles, cell phones or prescription drugs.

By the time police arrive, the youngsters have scattered.

The attacks continued through the summer, more than a dozen in all. In each case, police say, the little gangsters picked out a person who was weak, drunk, old or otherwise vulnerable. Police have seen no such pattern of white-on-black violence, something we would condemn just as loudly.

Robbery seems to be the primary motive. But, according to Minkowsky, “in some cases they seem to do it for the thrill of it,” shades of “A Clockwork Orange.” The perpetrators have been as young as 8 and as old as 20.

This is a serious problem for two compelling reasons.

First, this isn’t simply kids being kids. There have been crude weapons used and people have been hurt. Eventually, someone could be seriously injured or killed.

Second, these incidents fan the flames of racial intolerance in the Twin Cities toward our Somali neighbors, the vast majority of whom have no connection to these crimes and who have even offered to help police capture the offenders.

We have long feared that we live about one serious incident away from a serious racial incident. It wouldn’t take much — a serious beating, a rape or homicide — to set something off. Black victim or white, it wouldn’t really matter to those seeking to act upon their angry impulses.

That is why we compliment the Lewiston Police Department for addressing this problem swiftly and publicly. And we call upon the Somali elders to do the same — to vocally condemn this behavior among their own people, to reaffirm the obligation of parents to control their children and, when that fails, to work diligently with police to capture the little rogues.

Crime statistics show that Lewiston and Auburn are, year after year, two of the safest cities in the nation. And a desire for more peace and safety is one of the reasons Somali residents often say they chose to relocate here from other metropolitan areas.

It’s in the best interest of all concerned that this behavior stop, or be stopped, before it worsens.

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