DFL apologizes after fight breaks out at Minneapolis endorsement convention

[Jose Garcia]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: CBS News Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS -- The DFL Party is apologizing after a fight broke out at the Ward 10 endorsing convention on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department, officers arrived at the Ella Baker Center shortly after 2 p.m. to a large crowd and heard reports of people fighting, but says it did not observe any physical altercations.

A video shows the fight breaking out as Councilmember Aisha Chughtai takes the stage. The convention was immediately adjourned due to safety concerns.

In a statement released late Saturday night, the DFL said that "it is clear that the conflict was instigated by supporters of city council candidate Narsi Warsame."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/minneapolis-ward-10-convention-fight-dfl/

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. What is DFL? Nt

[Archae]

2. Still can't find the words for the "DFL..."

But this was at Google.

What does the DFL stand for?
The party was formed by a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944. The DFL is one of two state Democratic Party affiliates with a different name from that of the national party, the other being the North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party.

[dflprincess]

3. Democratic Farmer Labor party

In 1944 the Minnesota Democratic Party merged with the Farmer Labor party.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Being royalty, can't you straighten these people out? Lay down the law!

[Skittles]

4. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

first I have heard of it

[AZ8theist]

6. I never heard of it either..

..but thankfully they all get along so well!!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. It's the name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota.

[progree]

7. Some more

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/mpls-dfl-convention-descends-into-chaos/89-a8b9b335-a02f-4c1d-859d-65af6ff3c90c

Video shot at the event shows current City Councilwoman Aisha Chughtai's supporters were on the stage as a group of people backing challenger Nasri Warsame protested.

A group of Warsame-supporters eventually climbed onto the stage and seemingly forced the supporters of Chughtai to vacate.

The DFL Party is clearly blaming it on "Warsame and his team ... escalating the situation and encouraging conflict":

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minneapolis-ward-10-convention-fight-dfl/

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin called the event extremely disheartening.

"Harassment and violence are unacceptable, and we expect candidates and their campaign teams to work hard to curb such behavior when it comes from their supporters, staffers, or volunteers," Martin said. "Warsame and his team took the opposite approach at today's convention by escalating the situation and encouraging conflict."

Martin went on to apologize to Chughtai, her supporters and her team for the incident.

Warsame is a refugee from Somalia. I hope this isn't friction between Somali and most of the rest of the DFL in that ward, but that's what it looks like to me. Something like this (but not with this level of violence) has occurred before in Minneapolis DFL politics but I can't find the story. Somalis got representation on the city council and want to maintain that and get more. Ditto the state legislature. (And Congress - Ilhan Omar CD5).

In Minnesota, DFL is and has long been THE Democratic party. It's not some radical offshoot of anything, and its political POSITIONS are quite mainstream Democratic by the standards of the rest of the country. It's a little more fractious internally, perhaps, than most.

Well this is an interesting Google search (but I haven't sorted it out yet):

https://www.google.com/search?q=somalis+on+minneapolis+city+council

And to add to the confusion, there's another Warsame that was recently on the city council - ABDI Warsame.

but not anymore.
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/city-council/

Here's a Somali-born person currently representing Minneapolis's 6th Ward (which includes Cedar - Riverside)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Osman_(politician)

From the above link -- what happened to ABDI Warsame:

A special municipal election was held on August 11, 2020, for Ward 6's vacant seat. The previous councilmember, Abdi Warsame, resigned from the seat in March 2020 to head the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. The special election occurred after the George Floyd protests and during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] Osman said he would address the opioid crisis and advocated for access to affordable housing.[2] Osman defeated 10 other candidates in the race and was sworn into office on August 28, 2020.[3]

And unfortunately this, also too common in some segments of DFL politics:

In 2022, Osman apologized for homophobic and anti-Semitic Facebook posts he made between 2011 and 2013 after screenshots were unearthed of him allegedly commenting "Where's Hitler when you need him," in response to foreign policy discussion regarding Israel. [8]

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. .

Warsame is a refugee from Somalia. I hope this isn't friction between Somali and most of the rest of the DFL in that ward, but that's what it looks like to me.

It's not. It's a conservative, business-backed candidate leveraging an already messy process to create chaos and deny the incumbent the endorsement.

[JI7]

8. What are they fighting about ?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. This was an endorsing convention and the Warsame campaign's goal was to get out without the

body endorsing anyone. They succeeded.

[progree]

9. A similar situation in 2014 --

This is the story I was trying to remember in my post #7.

DFL caucus in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside ends in chaos, Minnpost, 2/5/2014

Police break up the meeting after a pre-caucus argument carries over into disputes among supporters of Rep. Phyllis Kahn and her challenger, Mohamud Noor.

... The caucus at the Brian Coyle Center in Cedar-Riverside produced an overflow crowd of more than 300, a pre-caucus argument handled by the police and a subsequent physical attack on one of the participants.

Eventually, staff from the Coyle center decided to shut down the event, and police quickly dispersed the crowd.

Emotions had been running high more than an hour before the scheduled 7 p.m. start and escalated even more by caucus time in the Cedar-Riverside Somali stronghold.

... Ilhan Omar, a staffer for Minneapolis Council Member Andrew Johnson and vice chair of the Senate district, was attacked by a group of about five people. Then a Noor supporter launched herself into the fray and was eventually shoved into a police officer’s grasp.

Police dragged the woman out of the building and handcuffed her, but eventually let her free. Omar escaped without serious injuries.

(but she was certainly beaten up -- see article. She's now in the U.S. Congress serving her 3rd term -progree)

MORE: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/02/dfl-caucus-minneapolis-cedar-riverside-ends-chaos/

The defeat of a veteran 44-year state legislator (since 1972!) by a Somali-born person was a big shock to the DFL-iverse. It marked the beginning of a new day for the very white Minnesota political establishment.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. Nasri. Not Narsi. Some bad writing/editing when a candidate's name is mis-spelled.

Hopefully, if his supporters are starting fights, his will be a short political career, no matter the spelling.

[Omaha Steve]

14. After a review by forum hosts, locking........

NOT important news of national interest only.

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