MINNEAPOLIS – The brawl that shut down the nominating process for a Democratic convention for the City Council began as incumbent Aisha Chughtai was getting ready to deliver the first speech of the convention. Her challenger, Nasri Warsame would have had the chance to speak next. Neither got to make their speeches. In later statements:
> Chughtai, a community organizer in her first term on the Council, said more than a dozen of her supporters and Democratic Party volunteers were assaulted. She said Warsame delegates charged the stage assaulting her and her supporters as she was about to begin her convention speech. Her supporters, Chughtai said, had to lock themselves in a hospitality room to get away. “What happened was horrifying, unacceptable, and indicative of the growing threat to progressive, pro-people candidates and movement leaders,” Chughtai said.
> Warsame, a public housing executive and himself a former City Council member, said that his campaign manager was assaulted by a Chughtai staff member. He posted a picture of himself visiting an injured supporter in the hospital. “Violence and unfairness have no place in democracy,” Warsame said.
Earlier: Democrat chief ponders expelling Minneapolis brawlers