After 30 years of refugees from Somalia being settled in Minneapolis, the Somalis have taken over the city’s sixth ward.
And Minnesotans are starting to get a picture of what that will look like going forward.
The mayor’s office and the entire city council are up for election in November, which means it’s caucus time in Minneapolis. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL, chooses delegates for each candidate at caucus meetings attended by thousands of party members.
In the Somali-dominated sixth ward, hundreds of Somali refugees packed a small gymnasium Tuesday for a caucus and things quickly devolved into pandemonium. Emergency personnel eventually intervened and shut down the event amid calls for calm by city council candidates.
Watch video of chaos breaking out at Democratic caucus for city council in Minneapolis’s sixth ward Tuesday:
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Photos and video from the caucus show Somalis yelling and screaming and breaking out in pushing and shoving matches. Some photos show blood on the gymnasium floor.
No arrests were made.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune described the sixth-ward incident as follows:
The scene in the Somali-dominated Sixth Ward was chaotic.
Shoving matches and medical emergencies resulted from crowding at the Brian Coyle Community Center, where more than 400 people crammed into the building’s small gymnasium. Council Member Abdi Warsame, who is being challenged by Mohamud Noor, showed up to address the crowd.
“We’re winning in every precinct,” Warsame said. “My supporters, I want you to calm the situation.”
Fire officials shut down the location and sent the caucus outside to Currie Park, which is next to the Coyle Center.
Delegates for the citywide convention were not chosen in some precincts in the Sixth Ward — that part of the process will be delayed.
Noor said the event was poorly organized, and that the DFL was not ready for the high turnout [of Somalis].
Michele Bachmann, the former Republican congresswoman who represented parts of Minneapolis, said the chaotic behavior illustrates certain realities about Democratic politics that will never be shown in the establishment media. The gymnasium that night resembled a Third World scene, compliments of refugee resettlement, as Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities continue to place thousands of Somali refugees into Minnesota every year.
But what if the tables were turned and Somalis voted Republican?
“If this was a GOP conference, Democrats would demand an end to the refugee program,” Bachmann told WND. “The Democrats unashamedly misuse government programs to grow a taxpayer-subsidized voting constituency.”
Refugee resettlement is paid for by federal tax dollars and the refugees, selected by the United Nations, are signed up for food stamps and Medicaid, placed in subsidized housing and their children educated for free in U.S. public schools. The costs run into the billions every year, Bachmann said.
The Somali refugees, more than 134,000 of whom have been sent to the U.S. for permanent resettlement since the 1980s, have a particularly poor record of assimilation. Since 2007 more 40 Somalis have been confirmed by the FBI to have left the U.S. to join overseas terrorist organizations, including ISIS, al-Qaida and al-Shabab. Dozens of others have been arrested, tried and convicted of providing material support to overseas terrorists.
That prompted former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger to declare in 2015, “We have a terror recruitment problem in Minnesota,” but he stopped short of using the “S” word or saying where the recruitment targets were coming from.
Watch video of sixth ward caucus in which elderly Somali gets upset after being asked to sit down:
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Ninth Ward
Somali turnout was significant not only in the sixth but also the ninth ward. Mohamed Farah appeared to win or do well in several precincts outside of Phillips, the Star Tribune reports.
“In the Corcoran neighborhood, Farah won 24 of a possible 52 delegates, while Cano gained 15 and Schiff got seven.
“Shukri Hassan, sitting with three younger women, said she was a first-time caucus-goer there to support Farah.
“This is a Democratic country and we are exercising our right,” Hassan said.
Somalis protested documentary film last fall
This is not the first time Somalis in Minneapolis have erupted in violent protests.
In September last year a large mob formed in the Cedar Riverside community to protest a video documentary planned for showing on HBO that investigated the positive and negative aspects of Somali refugee communities in the United States.
Watch the video of September 2016 Somali protest in Minneapolis:
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Michael DePerry, who wrote about the Minneapolis caucus for Mad World News, observed:
Keep in mind, these disturbing events are part of the voting process that we as Americans rightfully cherish. While such incidents are expected to happen often in the Third World, we are now seeing them on U.S. soil.
Liberals set up these refugee programs. Now, they are living with the consequences. If anyone tries to tell you that America will not follow in the footsteps of European countries who harbor large numbers of refugees, show them the examples above. Videos and images do not lie.
