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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Immigrant Groups’ Are Battling It Out In The Streets Of Fargo

    Immigrant Groups’ Are Battling It Out In The Streets Of Fargo

    CHUCK ROSS
    Reporter
    4:49 PM 06/10/2015

    A manhunt is underway in Fargo, N.D. after two separate groups of immigrants from unknown countries began waging what is being described as a “street war” against each other earlier this week.

    According to Valley News Live, police are currently searching for Luke Goodrich and Isaac Nyemah for their involvement in an alleged armed home invasion that took place Wednesday morning.

    The Fargo Police Department is asking for your assistance in locating two individuals of interest that are believed to…
    Posted by Fargo Police Department on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

    It is unclear how, but the two men are allegedly involved in trouble that began Sunday at a birthday party in a Fargo park.
    A group of 70 people were gathered when an altercation of some sort ensued. Men affiliated with one immigrant group smashed out the window of a car with a crowbar. The same men vandalized another vehicle shortly after. Police were initially called to the park because a DJ had been hired and party-goers were drinking alcohol, in violation of park rules.

    According to Valley News, while police have acknowledged that two immigrant groups are involved, they said that it is “not relevant” what country they hail from. Fargo, which has a population of around 110,000 people, has seen 4,000 refugees from 35 nations come to the city over the past decade.

    “You know when you get different new American groups from different ethnic backgrounds from different areas, sometimes they come here with those cultural disputes between the groups, and likely that’s what we are seeing here,” Lt. Michael Mitchell of the Fargo Police Department told Valley News.

    Valley News reported that a refugee liason officer is currently looking into the cause of the squabble.

    The beef between the two groups escalated on Monday when a man was found unconscious after being beaten with a baseball bat. An altercation between the man and members of the other group had started in the parking lot of a liquor store and moved to a nearby apartment complex.

    A Fargo resident who had seen the aftermath of Sunday’s damage noted that crime in the area has gone up recently.

    “I guess things can happen anywhere, but I mean there have just been more and more things in Fargo the last several years,” Susan Koskela told Valley News. “So, but, yeah when it’s this close to home it’s not a good thing.”

    http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/10/im...eets-of-fargo/

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    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Somalis find a home in Fargo
    Posted: Monday, June 19, 2000 12:00 am


    Wire
    North Dakota city offers 'a quiet place' for families

    By John MacDonald
    Associated Press

    FARGO, N.D. -- Dahir Sharif-Ahmed walks barefoot to an empty spot on the floor and kneels with the other men. Bowing toward the front of the mosque, facing east to Mecca, they whisper prayers to Allah.

    It is a warm afternoon in this very white town of Catholics and Lutherans. Yet the mosque is full. In this flat spot on the vast American prairie, families from Somalia have found a most unlikely home.

    Men, most born in the northeast African republic, crowd the front. A handful of women, their hair covered by long scarves, must petition Allah from the back of the room, separated by a wall of chalkboards.

    "Beware, my brothers," the speaker warns in perfect English. Sharif-Ahmed, surrounded by his countrymen, listens intently.
    "Teach your children about the Prophet. Teach them Michael Jordan is not the king of all things," he admonishes. "Or someday, they may come to you and say, 'Father, I go to the Lutheran church now."'

    The hint of a smile crosses Sharif-Ahmed's serious face.

    The remarks weren't disrespectful, Sharif-Ahmed says later, over lunch at a Greek sandwich shop. They merely acknowledged, he explains, that being an immigrant -- especially a black, African, Muslim immigrant -- can be daunting in a place that remains so white and so committed to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

    "We want to be American," says Sharif-Ahmed, 42, who came to Fargo four years ago. "But we also don't want to give up our own culture."

    Newcomers fleeing war

    Since 1993, this Midwestern town of quiet neighborhoods and closely cropped lawns has been welcoming refugees from war-stricken countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Bosnia.

    They arrive almost daily, sponsored by one of the most charitable refugee resettlement programs in the United States.
    Six hundred Somali families now live in Fargo, which looks and sounds nothing like their homeland on the other side of the world. But its values and family loyalties are very familiar, and that is why the Somalis come.

    The 1990 census estimates the population of Fargo at 90,000 people, nearly 98 percent of them white. Norwegians are a strong, stoic majority. But there's little truth in the stereotype of "Fargo," the Oscar-winning film in which residents chirp "you betcha" while pursuing fast food.

    The summers are short, the winters long and harsh, even to people who boast a Viking heritage.

    But refugees seem to settle here with ease and are quick to praise the community for its generosity.

    "Fargo is a place of peace," Somalis who know tell those who don't. "Go there and you will be well."

    And so they come, trading Mogadishu's narrow, dusty streets with houses of brick and stone for wide, clean avenues with wooden tract homes.

    Their children, whose young minds quickly absorb English, play soccer in city parks with teammates who seem oblivious to skin color.

    Somali women such as 23-year-old Fowsia Adde wear traditional scarves and long, colorful dresses. A decade ago, they would have drawn long, curious stares. Today, Adde says, she receives only occasional glances as she hunts the shelves of the local grocery for spices.

    "We used to get a lot of looks," she says. "Now, people are used to us."

    Sharif Hashim, one of the mosque's elder members, walks there nearly every day. The building, like Fargo, has quietly changed with the immigration tide. It used to be a Jehovah's Witness hall.

    A white neighbor mowing his lawn looks up briefly and offers a friendly smile as Hashim walks by, dressed in a traditional white robe and colorful African hat.

    '…; your house no more'

    Unlike Hashim, Sharif-Ahmed has always worn western clothes. Even in Somalia, he favored business shirts and slacks.

    "My first impression of Fargo was 'what a quiet place,' " says Sharif-Ahmed. "And everywhere you go here, the people are helpful."

    His family ran a successful hotel and transportation business in the oceanfront capital of Mogadishu. One night 10 years ago, as the country's civil war boiled over, men with guns came to his door and ordered the family out.

    "They said, 'This is your house no more. If you don't leave, you will be killed.' So we left with nothing."

    Sharif-Ahmed, his wife and their six children walked across the border to Kenya, where they spent six years in a refugee camp.
    Finally, they got visas to the United States. Sharif-Ahmed had no idea what to expect when he stepped off the plane in Fargo. He and his family were greeted by volunteers and staff from Lutheran Social Services, which runs the resettlement program.
    The Americans showed them their new home.

    "They had set up a place to live, an apartment for my family," he says, still beaming at the memory. "There was everything, everything in the apartment. All kinds of food. Foods we had never heard of." Instant rice, for example. Pudding.
    Sharif-Ahmed now works for the local public health agency, helping immigrants get medical care.

    His family long ago moved from the apartment to a rented, four-bedroom home. He is thrilled his children have easily adapted to America. But he worries they may abandon Somali culture.

    Sharif-Ahmed needs no prompting to list the good things about Fargo. But generous and kind as its people have been, he is disappointed that Somalis and Americans don't spend more time together.

    'No profound interaction'

    Like other immigrant enclaves in mainstream America, the Somalis insulate themselves with the familiarity of food, clothes and religion, building a community within a community where little overlaps.

    "There is no profound interaction," Sharif-Ahmed says. "We see our neighbors ... We greet each other. But we don't exchange visits. We don't go to their houses, and they don't come to ours."

    It is unfortunate, he says, "because we are both missing out on a lot."

    Kim Seeb, his supervisor at the clinic, considers him a good friend. But she, too, acknowledges that their private lives rarely intersect.

    Language is a barrier. Lutheran Social Services offers English classes to new refugees, but many stop after learning enough to survive -- how to ask directions, how to read supermarket food labels.

    Seeb, a longtime Fargo resident, says Somalis and Americans also are afraid of unintentional slights.

    "There is always this fear that you might do something that insults them because you don't understand the culture," she says.
    Working Somali women say they often feel pressured to give up traditional clothing, which covers their hair and virtually all of their bodies.

    Fargo's unemployment hovers around 2 percent, so jobs are plentiful. But many are low-paying, and refugees often cannot afford to feed their families without public assistance.

    Even so, Adde says, word still spreads to refugee camps in Africa: Come to Fargo.

    http://www.postbulletin.com/somalis-...813dd1902.html





  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    The government grant funded group that works to give refugees and "edge".
    Welcome to IDC

    The Immigrant Development Center (IDC), a non-profit 501©(3) organization, was established in 2003 as a means to proactively address the challenges and opportunities of growing cultural and ethnic diversity in the Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN metropolitan area.
    The Immigrant Development Center is a grass-roots social change organization focused on economic justice, governed by a volunteer board of directors that represents the community we serve.
    Our work supports and serves the immigrant population in the Fargo Moorhead area, concentrating on fostering entrepreneurship and enhancing opportunities for self employment.
    Immigrant Development Center provides training, lending, and technical assistance to guide immigrants and refugees to economic prosperity.

    http://www.idcfm.org/

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    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Massive Fight At Lindenwood Park, Police Say Two Immigrant Groups Not Cooperating

    Updated: Mon 6:50 PM,
    Jun 08, 2015
    By: Nicole Johnson

    Watch Video Report at Link


    An update on a developing story out of South Fargo, police are still looking for people involved in a massive fight at Lindenwood Park last night.

    Apparently it started as a birthday party with around 70 people, police say things got out of hand and someone used a crow bar to smash windows of a car. When officers pulled up, the vandalized car was gone. Later, they found it running at an intersection with no one in it.

    Police say they believe the same men smashed another car near an apartment on 20th Street South. While investigators don't believe it's gang related, they say the two groups are immigrants, and aren't being cooperative.

    "You know when you get different new American groups from different ethnic backgrounds from different areas, sometimes they come here with those cultural disputes between the groups, and likely that's what we are seeing here," says Lt. Michael Mitchell with the Fargo Police Department.

    It's not a place parents want to see crime, "This is where they want to come and run around and feel safe," says Angie Behr, a mom to two kids.

    She takes them to Lindenwood Park a lot, and says she sees a lot of “sketchy” things happening. "I definitely think there are some things that are happening in the park that could be stopped, and I don't know how often it is paroled. I haven't seen a cop drive through here very often."

    "We want people to have a good time, and we don't want to infringe on other people's happy time and, so it is unfortunate,” says Carolyn Boutain, director of Cultural Activities.

    After a massive brawl at Lindenwood, Fargo Park leaders are reviewing their response, trying to decide if they need to make changes.

    "These were people who were just in the park, they were not people who had a reservation, these were not people who we knew were coming to do anything. And obviously the parks are open all the time, for people to come and do all kinds of things, and they don't always get along. And, in this case they don't always get along."

    Police were originally called to the park because the birthday party was too loud, and breaking park rules with a DJ and alcohol.

    "That seems to be a park that gets a little bit more activity, this type of event couldn't be held at a smaller park," says Lt. Mitchell.

    The Fargo Park District is working with Fargo Police to possibly add some more rules, hoping to discourage crime in the future. Both say the parks are safe, but you should be aware of your surroundings at all times.

    "Stuff happens anywhere, but definitely sad to see that at a park it could occur, especially this is where they want to come and run around and feel safe," says Behr.

    Police say they don't believe the fight was gang related. They have a refugee liaison officer helping in the investigation to find out why the fight happened in the first place.

    http://www.valleynewslive.com/home/h...306553171.html







  5. #5
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Newmexican View Post
    The government grant funded group that works to give refugees and "edge".
    Welcome to IDC

    The Immigrant Development Center (IDC), a non-profit 501©(3) organization, was established in 2003 as a means to proactively address the challenges and opportunities of growing cultural and ethnic diversity in the Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN metropolitan area.
    The Immigrant Development Center is a grass-roots social change organization focused on economic justice, governed by a volunteer board of directors that represents the community we serve.
    Our work supports and serves the immigrant population in the Fargo Moorhead area, concentrating on fostering entrepreneurship and enhancing opportunities for self employment.
    Immigrant Development Center provides training, lending, and technical assistance to guide immigrants and refugees to economic prosperity.

    http://www.idcfm.org/
    Pass the FairTax and shut these 501 C 3 tax frauds down.

    HR 25 in the US House of Representatives and S 155 in the US Senate.
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    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

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