One of the men goes for her phone. The other grabs at her hands. Ozturk screams. Shock and fear ripple through her voice. Two masked women join them, tugging at her backpack, peeling the straps from her shoulders. “I’m going somewhere, I need to call someone,” she pleads. “We’re the police. Relax,” one of the men says in response.
They surround her. Then, one by one, they pull their neck gaiters up to cover their faces. “You don’t look like police,” a voice off screen says. “Why are you hiding your faces?” The questions continue, but the figures don’t respond. Instead, they cuff Ozturk, cross the street, and put her in an unmarked SUV. She is gone.
Look at their body language.
These aren’t law enforcement professionals detaining a suspect.
These are Nazi Brown Shirt thugs ganging up on a fucking PhD student.
This country is nosediving HARD. Arm yourselves. I would never allow plain-clothed thugs to push me into an unmarked van and take me to a secondary location. You are fighting for your life at that point for all you know.
I want to respond with something. But everything I write is so fucking dark and violent. Here goes, I’ll try again:
If I were in Nazi Germany, and I saw this go down- a Jew or disabled or protester getting disappeared- and these Nazi brown shirts were shot and killed, or beaten to a pulp with metal bars, fucking stomped to death, I think it would be just.
Not just just. The only good ending to that story.
As much as I agree, resisting is likely going to escalate the situation beyond what most people are willing to deal with.
Face it, very few people have the knowledge and skill required to even put up a fight against anyone that is prepared for that encounter.
I get why the victim here didn’t really fight back. I get why she let them take her away. I understand the fear she was probably feeling in that moment, and it can be paralysing for someone who isn’t prepared to fight for their life and doesn’t have the knowledge, skill, or experience required to handle the situation.
To be clear: I’m not saying this victim is dumb, inexperienced, or lacks general life experience, I would argue quite the opposite, in fact. The problem is that they don’t have the knowledge, skill, and experience with confrontations. I’m certain, beyond any doubt, that this person was very intelligent, skilled and experienced; just not with physical confrontation.
This is shameful behavior. Why did they feel the need to ambush a bookworm? Not to insult them so all but they are clearly more of an intellectual person than a combative person.
Disclaimer: I’m not American, I’m just empathetic to those that get disappeared in the middle of the day by people wearing all black without so much as a badge being flashed.
Escalation is the point. People weren’t upset when police beat and harassed people.
That’s just it. Police beat and harass people and the public barely takes note. So fighting back and getting beaten isn’t really going to move the needle here in terms of public support. Those that would be outraged by someone getting disappeared in broad daylight by thugs in all black with masks on, that are claiming to be law enforcement, will also be outraged by anything more significant. From a public support standpoint, you don’t gain a lot of attention by fighting back and getting beaten.
Honestly, someone should go to the local PD and report that person as missing/abducted.
To be clear: anyone with the skillset, knowledge and experience to effectively stand their ground against these kinds of people, absolutely should.
Unless they clearly identify themselves and show proof (badges and documents) that prove their claims of being law enforcement, you should 100% fight back against being kidnapped by these thugs. They are little more than a gang with government funding if they’re not doing things “by the book” so to speak.
As far as I can see, most of this kind of thing that’s been happening lately is more based on feelings and assumptions by a small group who is going around mostly unchecked, doing a lot of damage. If the police/LEO crowd had a PR problem with BLM (and all related incidents including protests) then this is going to be a complete shit storm when it finally hits the fan, which might be four years from now…
On an individual level, I completely understand why someone untrained and unprepared would want to avoid any harm coming to them by complying, regardless of who the perpetrator is. Whether police, FBI, homeland security, secret service or some other form of LEO, or simply an organized gang of thugs… Self preservation is going to be the main goal. Far be it for me to fault someone for doing what they feel is going to give them the best outcome in that scenario.
It’s a tough call honestly. So far it doesn’t seem like they are killing the people they take. If the person was armed, and tries to use it to defend themselves, they very likely will get killed. As other have commented, these appear to be basically thugs. Likely with less training then police officers, and certainly with less oversight. So people need to choose what they want to avoid most. Death, or incarceration with a chance of getting out. I would hate to have to make that choice myself.
The killing starts when they become more confident that there won’t be any consequences for their actions.
Nazi? You, sir, are ridiculous and have no sense of nationalism. Hamas, who would not have your back or mine, is quite obviously the problem in Palestine, and this PhD student (as if that makes a difference) is supporting the wrong side. The US is revoking visas of Hamas supporters. Hence, she’s being detained to ultimately have her visa revoked. What part of that aren’t you following?
We got a Nazi here.
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Well, you did out yourself.
The part where she isn’t a hamas supporter, and was abducted by the secret police for writing an op-ed on how Tufts should divest money from Israel.
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You don’t have to be Muslim to be anti Israel.
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Yikes, the hasbara is really moldy these days, that doesn’t even make sense.
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We have due process in this country. If you don’t like that, then fuck off.
Lmao. Couple things: 1) relax, and 2) she wasn’t incarcerated; her visa was revoked. That doesn’t require due process, since they’re discretionary.
Take it easy, man.
Her visa was revoked for what? By what judge? Why was she detained? You claim she’s “wrong”. By whose standard? Trump? He’s the ultimate deciding force? What happens when you’re wrong? Can we revoke your citizenship?
Rapid fire over here. Okay, here goes:
We have a system of checks and balances. We have something called the judicial branch that determines the law. Not the president. The fact you’re ok with trump defying the constitution in this manner further proves this is fascism not nationalism. You don’t love our country, you just hate groups that are different. Citizenship can be revoked with probable cause now. All it takes is an ICE agent to show up and detain you. You think it won’t happen to you but once you start disagreeing you’re gone
So writing an opinion article that her university shouldn’t be funding Israel because she disagrees with how Israel is handling the conflict makes her a terrorist supporter? No evidence of ties to Hamas or supporting Hamas. Tell me how she supported terrorists and this isn’t just an infringement on free speech.
100 % of Russian Bots agree with smoresrock
Without due process.
Fuck off, Nazi cunt. Blocked.
Classic lefty reaction. Just shut down and resort to insults. Cool 😎
I usually do not get rage-baited, but something about this response clicked something it my soul.
I am not a lefty. I will resort to much worse than insults if ever got my hands on you (or anyone like you).
I hate to co-opt the Canadians but. Elbows up.
We’re past elbows up, we’re currently transitioning to Gloves Off.
Nazism isn’t nationalism. Loving your country doesn’t mean you silence those that disagree with you and “detain” anyone that doesn’t look like you.
Except that’s not what’s going on here.
Radical Islam groups are designated terrorists. It just so happens that this administration is buckling down and following through with their word on revoking visas to those who support such groups. This is what America wants; the numbers don’t lie. You guys are just not used to the follow through.
Supporting the end of genocide?? She is a terrorist by the looks of it
Smoresrock is a Russian Bot
More people voted for someone besides Trump. If no one was an option, they would have won in a landslide. Where is the proof she is a terrorist? What if the next president labels maga hats terrorists? You’re deported and no one will ever know.