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http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/126828998.html

Gov. Scott Walker has ordered the Wisconsin State Patrol to provide additional law enforcement help at the Wisconsin State Fair after several incidents involving rampaging youths broke out on the fairgrounds and on the streets outside Thursday night.

Cullen Werwie, Walker's spokesman, said the governor made the decision after reviewing the events from Thursday night, in which at least 24 people were arrested.

"We will continue to evaluate the situation and make any adjustments necessary to ensure a successful and safe event. We will be doing everything in our power to ensure that parents feel that it is safe to bring their children to the world's best fair," Werwie said in a statement.

Also, Rick Frenette, CEO of the fair, announced that, because of the violence overnight, the fair would immediately implement a policy in which no youths under 18 years of age would be allowed onto the grounds after 5 p.m. without a parent or guardian who is at least 21 years of age. There will be no changes at the Midway.

On Friday, police from three jurisdictions - West Allis, Milwaukee and Wisconsin State Fair - were piecing together a series of incidents late Thursday night at the fair in which large groups of youths rampaged through the midway and outside the grounds after closing. At least 24 were arrested, and seven officers were hurt, a State Fair official said.

Tom Struebing, chief of the State Fair Police, said two of the seven injured officers were hospitalized. One was hit in the face with an improvised weapon; the other suffered a concussion.

Struebing said the fights that broke out in the midway area involved black youths fighting other black youths. He said those fights were not racially motivated.

Witnesses told WTMJ-AM (620) that dozens to hundreds of young black people were beating white people as they left the fair late Thursday night. Patrice Harris, a spokeswoman for the fair, said a police alert she was given indicated four people were hurt.

"It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people," Norb Roffers of Wind Lake told WTMJ. He said he left the State Fair entrance near the corner of S. 84th St. and W. Schlinger Ave. in West Allis.

One eyewitness, a concession worker who works near the midway area, told the Journal Sentinel that large groups of African-American youths ran through the midway area, knocking over young children and adults, disrupting midway rides and tearing signs up.

"I have never seen anything like it," the worker said. "It was mob mentality."

The fair incidents are similar to mob-like disturbances that occurred over the Fourth of July weekend in Milwaukee.

About 60 young people beat and robbed a smaller group that had been watching fireworks from Kilbourn Reservoir Park. The injured people were white; the attackers were African-American, witnesses said.

Another group looted a convenience store at a gas station at the corner E. North Ave. and N. Humboldt Blvd.

The incidents Thursday night come as the State Fair board over the last decade has worked to increase diversity at the annual fair, expanding its entertainment lineup and marketing to appeal to a younger, more multicultural audience. Diversity was a priority for State Fair Park Chairman Martin Greenberg, who spoke often of making it "truly the people's park" - a "place of inclusion, not exclusion."

Thursday night's Main Stage performer was rapper MC Hammer, but a number of people who attended the concert said the show wasn't to blame at all for the disturbances at the fair. One woman said the crowd watching Hammer was mostly white and adult and any children there seemed to be with parents.