LEWISTON, Maine – A New England metropolis remodeled by an inflow of refugees and immigrants is now grappling with a youth gun-violence disaster, as police report 35 gun-related incidents this 12 months, 22 involving juveniles.

“I don’t feel safe. I fear for my life,” Mohamed Muhumed, a Lewiston teenager, advised Fox News Digital. “I saw someone get punched in the middle of the sidewalk over there. It’s crazy.”

The metropolis, Maine’s second most populous metropolis and house to a massive inhabitants of refugees from Somali and other African nations, is experiencing a severe youth gun violence downside. Lewiston Police Chief Carly Conley called the gun violence “one of the most serious public safety challenges” dealing with the metropolis.

Jon Fetherston, a reporter for the conservative-leaning The Maine Wire who has reported extensively on the situation, advised Fox News Digital that “the gun violence in Lewiston is very concerning. The majority… has been committed by teenagers… Multiple times teenagers have been arrested and immediately released by the courts back out on the streets.”

“The court systems are being tapped. The DA is frustrated that the courts aren’t putting these kids away in jail… Residents are scared. Residents are very, very frustrated, and you’ve got kids shooting kids, and it’s almost become commonplace here in Lewiston,” Fetherston said.

City officers have responded by approving $200,000 in further police extra time funding to develop patrols and enforcement. They have also urged adjustments to Maine’s juvenile justice system, including more choices for dealing with repeat violent offenders and higher scrutiny before high-risk juveniles are launched.

Lewiston, Maine. James – inventory.adobe.com

Mayor Carl Sheline said in a assertion last month that the elevated sources are “sending a strong message to those perpetrating gun violence: we will find you.”

But he added, “Parental involvement and accountability are key to reducing youth gun violence in our city.”

Republican Rick LaChapelle, a former metropolis council president who is now operating for mayor, advised Fox News Digital, “Our biggest problem is the system itself. The police department is doing an excellent job catching these people. We have one young man that’s been arrested 5 times, I believe, for the same thing. He gets arrested, gets brought down to the youth center… gets released.”

“It’s been a one-party rule forever that has instilled the rules that there’s no accountability,” LaChapelle argued. “We need to change the rules of the system.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Sheline to talk about his efforts on combating the gun violence, but the mayor didn’t reply by the time this story was revealed.

No official metropolis or police information signifies that Somali residents as a group are behind the violence, or establishes a connection to the improve. But LaChapelle said, “That seems to be who’s being arrested right now.”

One place in Lewiston where its rising range is not evident is the metropolis’s 82-member police drive, but Chief Michael Bussiere goals to change that amid an intense nationwide debate over race and policing. REUTERS

Mohamed Adbei, a teenager who spoke with Fox News Digital on the streets of Lewiston, pushed back on any ethnic connection: “I wouldn’t just say it’s the Somali kids. It’s youth in general.”

Ifraax Saciid, a Somali native who lived in Atlanta before transferring to Lewiston, agreed.

“No, that’s not the root cause. I think the root cause is poverty here in Lewiston. Lewiston is very poor and is economically not in a good state,” she said when requested if there was a direct connection to the Somali neighborhood. “I think what’s happening here is happening everywhere. It’s happening in Atlanta. I have lived in Miami and Ohio and Kentucky and Minnesota and have seen what is happening in those states also happening here in Lewiston. It’s nothing new.”

Lewiston has also been an epicenter in current years for fraud scandals involving Maine’s joint federal and state Medicaid program.

Saciid emphasised that “fraud is happening everywhere in the United States and with every skin color, with every class. It’s not tied particularly to one people.”

The Somali inflow to Lewiston started a quarter century in the past, when refugees and secondary migrants began relocating to the former mill metropolis alongside the Androscoggin River in search of secure neighborhoods and inexpensive housing.

Jibril Ahmed of Lewiston asks a query of Stephen Schwartz, U.S. Ambassador to Somalia, during his go to in Lewiston, Maine, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Then-Mayor Larry Raymond drew nationwide consideration in 2002 after asking Somali leaders to discourage further migration to Lewiston, arguing the fast inflow was straining metropolis sources.

Fast-forward to current day and Lewiston has one of the highest per capita Muslim populations in the nation, most of it Somali alongside with refugees from other African nations.

Fetherston argued that “history has proven him [Raymond] to be correct that… that it was too much too fast because a lot has changed in Lewiston. And things are not working out in Lewiston.”

LaChapelle famous, “I’m a French Canadian, so my ancestors came here…. We need legal immigration in America. We need to grow.”

But he added, “We just have to do it logically and legally and in. When my ancestors got here, there wasn’t a free… gravy train all the way down. Now we’re supporting everybody. We have for 30 years, we still have some people that are still on the welfare system 30 years later. That has to change.”