Wednesday, January 21, 2009

JNS BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Al Flowers Reportedly Serves Lawsuit On City Councilmember Don Samuels



Photos By John Hoff .

This information comes from a reliable source who has been steadily providing info about the ongoing Jordan Neighborhood controversy. The source informs me that...

Gadfly-at-large and reportedly Jordan's newest resident, Mister Al "I AM THE COMMUNITY" Flowers, has served a lawsuit on City Councilmember Don Samuels.

Flowers is in the second picture. Looks like he's saying, "The community et moi...the community lives, entirely, in the person of Al Flowers, therefore you should never reproach me in public."

OK, my humor grows obscure. My joke is based on a semi-famous quote by a king of France, who proclaimed "I AM THE STATE."

Anyway....unconfirmed what the lawsuit was about, but it almost certainly has something to do with Flowers' assertions he was somehow "assaulted" by Samuels, and possibly the way he was forcefully ejected from the press conference. There were apparently two video cameras recording, so it's not going to be a case of "he said, she said."

No, it will be a case of "he said, then HE said...REALLY LOUD."

I was there. Don Samuels didn't assault Flowers. But the tale will be in the video tape. (Word comes the videotape is already on YouTube and IBBN has it up, too)

My source also said something like "I guess Al Flowers needs another $3 judgment."

Know Your Jordan Neighborhood Players, Collect 'Em All

Here's some "back story" on Al Flowers and his "right hand man," Zach Metoyer, from the same source. Zach is in the first picture. He's the unshaven guy in the brown leather jacket. My source says, "He's Al's right hand man. Al Flowers has a show on MTN and Zach is often his co-host."

My source says he/she has some recordings of the show. The show is described as "really unbelievable." The Flowers/Metoyer duo is reportedly "infamous" for at least one incident of digging out old movie footage of slaveholders beating/whipping slaves, or perhaps making the 'house slave' do the whipping of the field slaves. Then they say something like, "Community, this is Don Samuels. He is the house slave." (But they don't use the word "slave," rather they use the "n-word.")

They continued to call Don the "house slave" and they say stuff like, "Back in the day, what would happen to the house slave is the field slaves would kill him. That's what we need to do, community. WE NEED TO KILL THE HOUSE SLAVE."

So after that episode aired, many were shocked and horrified and Sondra Samuels was extremely terrified for the safety of her husband, her family, and herself. For a few days following that episode, many people were contacting MTN, including my source.

Don Samuels, a few other councilmembers and the mayor were disgusted and they approached MTN and said "This cannot take place on the airwaves of our community channel." The show was suspended briefly while things were hashed out and there was an investigation and (according to my source) "everyone got a grip."

The Show Must Go On

The show was ultimately allowed to continue. But because of the suspension, Al Flowers filed a lawsuit against Don and the City of Minneapolis. Flowers claimed his freedom of speech had been violated and he claimed the whole move was part of a political strategy. The lawsuit was decided in Al's favor and a monetary judgement was awarded.

Three dollars.

Yup, three dollars.

This blog does not have a copy of the current lawsuit and, really, no time to go dig one up at the courthouse. If anybody wants to forward a copy of the lawsuit, I'll print what it alleges plus counter-responses. But, again, I was standing right there...so close I had to get out of the way...and I didn't see Don Samuels assault Flowers. I saw Flowers doing things that, in the judgment of some prosecutors, might constitute disorderly conduct and/or obstruction of legal process. Oh, and then I saw Farheen Hakeem verbally freaking out, seemingly trying to play up the non-incident with Samuels.

But there's no need to take my word on this. Let the videotapes surface. I hope that stuff ends up on YouTube. In fact, I hope there is a YouTube trance music remix. One gets the sense that no matter how many times these old games have been played with the same old players, this time something has fundamentally changed. The forceful ejection from a meeting of the constantly-disruptive Al Flowers may be an indication of that deep change.

In a hundred years, it might be said, "The New Majority took power in Jordan...and the police threw Flowers out in the street."

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