Minnesota

DFL chair promises changes after Minneapolis convention fight, MPR, 10am 5/14/23

(DFL chair) Martin said he will propose a bylaw to ban people who engage in violent assaults from the party. and “will then take immediate action to remove the folks involved in Ward 10.” (emhasis added -progree)

(DFL activist and convention volunteer Quentin Wathum-Ocuma: ) “We cannot have a convention if people aren't safe, And people are throwing things or people are punching things. Or if people are trying to physically assault me which they attempted to do multiple times, ...”

... Police were called and noted a large crowd, but the fight seemed to be over. Police report one person was taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests were made. (And another was treated at the scene, according to other news reports. Had the Chughtai people stood their ground, it would have been a very different story. I wonder if it had been a local city race somewhere else where it was Democrats and Repukes, and had the Repukes taken over, and only a couple of injuries because the Dems had retreated, would we still consider it a nothing burger? We think not. -progree)

... In a statement, Chugtai said the experience was horrifying and said more than a dozen of her supporters and DFL volunteers were physically assaulted over the course of the convention.

“This action by the Warsame campaign to harass, bully, and assault my supporters and DFL volunteers was an attempt to scare us,” Chugtai said. “Despite all this, we stayed calm and committed to our vision for Ward 10 and local democracy.”

In response, Warsame said his campaign manager was assaulted, and said “Violence & unfairness have no place in democracy.”

But Martin said after reviewing the video and speaking with people at the convention, it was clear that it was Warsame’s supporters who instigated the tension.