Police warn of sudden “takeover events” that can turn violent

CRYSTAL, Minn. — Crystal police say they will close Becker Park if necessary and turn away teens arriving in rideshare vehicles as they conduct a planned “takeover” event over the Fourth of July weekend. A similar event last weekend resulted in several arrests.

Crystal Police Chief Brian Hubbard explains more about the nationwide trend in this Q&A with KARE 11 News.

KARE 11: What is a “takeover event”?

Crystal Deputy Director Brian Hubbard: It’s a sort of social media explosion that says, “Hey, meet up at this place,” and it brings hundreds of people together, usually in a park area.

KARE 11: So what happened here last Sunday?

Hubbard: Last Sunday afternoon, within an hour, about 300 young people came, almost all of them via ride-sharing apps, and they simply ended up here in the park.

KARE 11: And has something dangerous come out of it?

Hubbard: The behavior escalated. The behavior became more and more brazen, and then fights broke out between the different people in the park. At that point, we decided that this gathering had become a group where we don’t know what’s going to happen next, and that we need to break up this group. Last Sunday, we arrested six people for disturbing the peace.

Hubbard says the department is preparing for a social media-fueled “takeover event” to be held again at Becker Park sometime during the Fourth of July weekend.

The most notorious example of this nationwide trend occurred last year in Manhattan’s Union Square – when influencer Kai Cenat’s PlayStation 5 giveaway led to a riot that drew thousands of people.

KARE 11: You mentioned that this is kind of a national trend. Is this happening in other cities locally and on the subway?

Hubbard: We know of at least six other communities in the greater metropolitan area, probably more, but we know of six where similar incidents have occurred in recent months.

KARE 11: Does it seem like there’s just the potential for a lot to go wrong with these things?

Hubbard: Yeah, I mean, last weekend was busy. Our concern is for the visitors that are here and the families that are enjoying this park is that this is a scary situation… Families are not going to want to be around with all the craziness coming from those who are not here to enjoy the park. And as these groups tend to get more aggravated, our concern is whether this could develop into something worse. Will there be assaults, is there a possibility of gun possession?

KARE 11: So what are the police planning for this weekend?

Hubbard: Our plan for this park is to prevent this mass gathering before it even starts, so if large groups of people arrive with carpools, we will close the park and remove everyone from that area before they become such a mass.

KARE 11: What do you think parents should know or do in such cases?

Hubbard: As a parent myself, it concerns me that so many unsupervised young people are in a space like this where not much good can come from.

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