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.
Ozturk’s lawyer later said she hadn’t been able to contact her and had no idea of her whereabouts.
America, the land of the free… Right?
Remember when conservatives were all like fear mongering that Obama was going to do this to them? It was always projection.
Free to the power of the people in uniform!
This is terrifying. Anybody can pretend to be ICE and kidnap in broad daylight.
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For the record, and I know I’m not the first to say it, this woman committed NO crime. She didn’t overstay a visa, she didn’t protest illegally. She wrote something the administration didn’t like.
For that, she was arrested by 8 masked officers in the middle of the street, in broad daylight. She was thrown in the back on an unmarked SUV. She’s received no legal representation. No trial. Not even charges, because again, she committed no crime.
Americans, you realize you’re watching the death of your rights and the rule of law, right? You have no illusions about the fact that you are defenseless? There is no longer any guardrail between you and an El Salvadoran prison camp. In something that reminds me very much of Stalin, an accusation is now a conviction.
Defenseless is a good word, it seems like we’re all just waiting for a savior to show up and rescue us. It doesn’t help that a large amount of Americans see protest as pointless right now. What it feels like is the bystander effect on a national level.
The worst part is how many people either support or just brush it off.
After all that trashing of Russians and why they do not fight against their government, the world gets to see that Americans are basically the same: so many fall for the dumbest possible propaganda and the rest is either afraid or apathetic.
Humans are the same everywhere. Political structures and cultures are not, but humans have evolved for much longer.
Which is why when you (if you do) think about the EU being some land of honey, it would be wise to also think “what am I missing if I don’t see similar problems there”.
I agree. We had over 20% far right votes here in Germany recently. Russian propaganda is going strong, too. Somehow I hope that watching the rapid disassembly of the US under Trump should open the eyes of some of them, but I am grasping at straws here.
Americans see protest as pointless right now.
Americans have seen a generation of peaceful protests that were crushed and villified. Anti-WTO, Anti-Iraq War, Occupy Wall Street, George Floyd, etc; all failed to achieve any of their stated goals.
And now that the fascists have taken control, peaceful protest is even less effective. For peaceful protest to succeed your opponent must have empathy, and fascists have none.
The last protest movement that accomplished something substantial was the civil rights movement. It was not peaceful, it was militant. I think we need a modern Black Panther Party.
For peaceful protests to succeed they must attract more people to the cause and gather momentum. Protests now would be useful for bringing people together and emboldening people to resist what’s going on. They are a step in building a movement. To say “protests alone don’t change things” misses this point.
Exactly, you need armed protest.
It doesn’t help that a large amount of Americans see protest as pointless right now.
It’s the wheel of life:
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Protests help something, but they are hard, violent, inconvenient, people die, money is lost, but they achieve goals and generally people know that protests and breaking everything around is necessary. Cutting infrastructure, beating officials (including police) to pulp, closing roads. Stopping factories (ok, that’s not a problem in the first world), stopping trucks and trains, stopping mail. Causing blackouts.
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To avoid that, people talk. They form mechanisms to avoid real protests, but these mechanisms are dependent on real protests. Like gold standard - it’s supported by circulation, so if you can’t fall back to gold, you can’t really call it gold standard. It’s the same with protests. Real democracy is dependent on falling back to protests and just killing a few of the government jerks who think they are some kind of thief aristocracy.
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People have long, really long period of questions being resolved by talking. And if it comes to protests, these are soft protests and they - mistake - become too subject for discussion, like let’s not go to those streets, let’s not hurt businesses, let’s follow these rules and obey police.
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People get used to that.
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The protest gold standard is in fact abolished, you’ve been softly and slowly made a serf, congratulations.
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Try protesting now, you’ll get absolutely abused for doing pretty normal things.
OK, I’m from Russia, here people looked at tanks on the streets of Moscow in a few crises and decided they are smart and wise to follow rules made by thieves and murderers.
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Remember “Better be Russian than a democrat” guys? Well, now they’re Russian!
Also, this is just the rehearsal until they go for political opponents with American citizenship.
She also had her visa revoked so can no longer legally stay in the USA to complete her studies, or enter again. This was because she wrote an op-ed disapproving of Israel’s genocide.
Yes.
America has always been more or less of a fascist state, and this is not new activity, although it is worse and more brazen in a lot of ways. Civil Rights for ethnic minorities has always been pretty iffy.
30% of the country loves this shit, and another large fraction doesn’t even know it’s going on. A lot of us are working to try to change things. The media is not covering all of the demonstrations, but we definitely need more people to get angry.
What the fuck do we do? I’m in a hyperliberal city in one of the few blue states left. We are relatively safe for now. I make a comfortable amount of money that I use to support my wife and friends who sometimes may not have necessities. I cannot risk my job by taking every day off to protest. Protests also seem meaningless to go to for me in my city because they’re happening in a safer city.
I am donating to the ACLU every month, but idk what else we can be doing. What can we be doing?
You have no illusions about the fact that you are defenseless?
We have guns. Lots of guns.
Everyone needs to arm themselves and train.
Your guns don’t compare to the guns the government use. Nor do you have the numbers to resist even if equally armed. If the 1/3 of voters that didn’t vote, actually voted for for Harris, you wouldn’t be in this mess but there you are.
Yeah well, ask the Afghans or Vietnamese. Turns out you don’t need to have the same fire power to drag your opponent through the mud.
The Afghans and Vietnamese had nothing to lose. Americans, no matter how much they complain online, have everything to lose.
The Vietnamese had some of the greatest strategic minds in their history leading the fight against the Americans.
So far, it doesn’t seem like there’s a single leader for a resistance in the U.S., and certainly none as skilled in tactics.
Where do you expect the resistance leaders to come from?
From the state resistance leadership school, with the public resistance leadership grant? If you dont form a resistance you cannot create resistance leaders
and if we had a time machine we could fix all this. STFU. GUNS.
I suspect your government would love it if you started shooting. They’d declare martial law. Goodbye elections, hello police state.
They will do this either way.
There is no bargaining with these people. They will not not escalate from their side. By not escalating from your side you only encourage their escalation as they face no repercussions.
That’s true actually - they are escalating pretty hard already.
As a long-term peacenik though, I hate the thought of gun battles on the streets. I wish you all the very best. I first visited the US in 1976 and have toured around a lot since then. My one single bad experience was Homeland Security when transiting through LAX. We’re tourists not terrorists, jeez cool your jets! I can’t imagine how bad ICE is.
We .need to arm ourselves and shoot fuckers like this. If you see fuckets like this trying to take someone intervene and shoot to kill. We need rise up. Because yes we are next.
Just start by protesting, protecting, and block them from doing this shit when possible. If you go directly full terrorist mode, it means they won…
They already won, are you from another species? Are you watching this?
full terrorist mode
You mean… like these fuckers?
They won a (ok a bit more) battle, not the war! Move your ass, rebuild your democracy and add safeguards so you never let such hateful, retarded people in this position again.
Black Panthers open carried.
She wrote something the administration didn’t like.
What was written?
A couple of op-eds for a Student newspaper criticizing Israel? I thought I saw the pieces linked earlier but I don’t see them now. The article linked on this post says it supported a student divestment program and referenced the International Criminal Court calling attacks on Gaza a genocide.
Hardly spicy compared to your average social media post.
For the record, and I know I’m not the first to say it, this woman committed NO crime.
Ozturk
The state rests it’s case.
Can we stop talking about “we should, we should”? Who is actually doing?
The time for talk was over November 4th, but it is beyond over now - arm yourself, period.
Where are the community resources for community building and fighting against ICE tactics - this is what the internet is for? Who is running the underground railroad? Why are every single one of us not educated on TOR and VPNs? Who are we primarying? What are the plans for removing propaganda from our real life communities?
There are no accessible answers to these questions - this is unacceptable, and we get this in order now. No one is coming to save us, we must do it ourselves. We have a 2 month window between now and when the most in-person activity will happen (summer).
P.S. Everyone screams at the gun owners and politicians about why they won’t do anything. But why would they? They’ll basically throw their lives away for nothing - especially when the people they claim to fight for are so fucking spineless.
If this woman can have her First Amendment RIGHT stripped and arrested in the street by plain clothes, and every single person in this country isn’t rioting, guns and laws will not fix it.
P.S P.S If you are not from America and are in a relatively free country, one of the best things you can do is host the resources for fighting the Nazis. American companies, individuals, and organization are automatically compromised.
If are an American, create an onion service or host using an EU VPS and domain registar.
As an european I’ve been mentally screaming this over the atlantic for months. GET ORGANIZED NOW! Reach out in your community, protest as much as possible, get armed, learn self defense, stockpile essential goods and most importantly, support each other.
Literally disappearing people off the street
Didn’t the U.S. fight a war against a country and its leader who did the same shit? I was never very proud to be an American because this country has done some fucked up shit since 1776. But this is downright terrifying to me as someone who is disabled and considered a parasite by Elon because if they aren’t stopped after this then it’s game over for any “non-white” people, LGBTQ+, and poor people in general to be disappeared.
This may be why they want Greenland so bad 🤔
Fucking Nazis. Where the fuck is she
En route to El Salvador.
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In Louisiana awaiting a Nazi judge to rubber stamp their blatant kidnapping of this woman
Our inner child will refuse to believe this, but history has shown us that fascists cannot be stopped peacefully.
Concealed carry might be our only real defense in the future
Maybe but One gun vs. 10 isn’t gonna do much. Needs to be combined with community organization. Get to know your neighbors and look out for and protect those likely to be targeted next. Organize your workplace and protect your coworkers from ICE. If you don’t speak up there will be no one to speak up for you when it’s your turn.
There are more than 10 of us.
Yes. That was literally my point.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson later claimed Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization.” The person said Ozturk, who is from Turkey, had had her student visa revoked.
To be perfectly clear, Ozturk is not accused of breaking the law. The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t bothered to explain its reasoning, but several outlets reported that Ozturk co-authored a student opinion piece urging Tufts to recognize the International Court of Justice’s declaration of a “plausible risk of genocide” unfolding in Gaza and to divest from Israel. You can read the article if you like. It does not mention Hamas.
WT actual F? A school opinion piece gets you disappeared??
We FUCKING TOLD ALL OF YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN. And you said we were being hyperbolic.
It will get worse.
How long do people think it will take for there to be shooting over this? Not everyone is going to just let people get disappeared in front of them without doing anything.
Who are you addressing here
Probably the Americans.
Let’s see if they bother to take any actual real action though, or if they just keep insisting there’s nothing they can do.
I have a vested interest in them actually doing something positive about their situation, because in a few years if they don’t, Europe and her allies will find itself in a World War, defending itself from Fascist USA aggression :-(
This is the Thought Police, brought to you by the people who invoke 1984 when their putrid opinions get called out on the internet.
White Rose movement got a girl and her brother beheaded in Nazi Germany. For pretty much this.
Edit: (wrong flower and wrong relationship and yeah others were executed i just read about them)
The government revoked Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk’s visa due to her pro-Palestinian activism, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who added the State Department may have revoked more than 300 student visas since the beginning of the second Trump administration.
“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said during a press conference in Guyana on Thursday.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tufts-students-visa-revoked-due-activism-rubio/story?id=120226954
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Remember the outrage when stuff like that happens in China?
Ever since living there a few years back, I keep saying how your two countries are so fucking similar, and it getting truer every day.I lived there 10 years ago and it felt entirely different at the time. Chinese people were afraid to discuss certain topics in public, which was not the case in the USA at that time, but yes, times have changed and it is becoming increasingly similar in the US.
Chinese people were afraid to discuss certain topics in public, which was not the case in the USA at that time,
Try talking about unionizing at work and see how people react. Americans are terrified of discussing critical issues in places where it matters the most.
Companies having the ability to destroy your life for having the wrong opinion is just as bad as a state doing it.
In the fifties talking about communism was a big bad thing according to Bill Bryson. People talk like the western world in general, and specifically USAmerica is this moral bastion.
At least the US looks down on historical McCarthyism. Generally.
I saw the video and it’s terrifying. Out of nowhere she’s gone and no one can contact her. Hopefully this video is a catalyst for a huge brain drain from America.
Also tourism. Bookings to the US already dropped by 20% in my country.
About 20% of US tourism revenue comes from abroad. If no more foreign tourists will visit it means profits for many businesses will be wiped out completely.
At this point going to the US is showing your allegiance to the far right, if you give them your money and time it’s because you support racism sexism and bigotry.
If you are in America and are expressing pro-Palestinian views online regardless of your citizenship status, you should be seriously considering yourself a legitimate target for arrest or abduction by the state. If you haven’t already, it is essential to assess your security posture and take action as required.
If you need a starting point, take a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s surveillance self-defense guide: https://ssd.eff.org/
Please be safe.
The exact thing they used to say China did!
AP’s article mentions that Ozturk was posted on this website, https://canarymission.org/
After the op-ed was published, Ozturk’s name, photograph and work history were published on the website Canary Mission, which describes itself as documenting people who “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”
'Tis a spooky place. No names, none of the articles have bylines, contact is just a webform, domain registration is anonymized, donation link is being washed thru some company called RTech Digital Marketing out of India.
Really got me wondering, who the fuck are these people and why do they seem to have ICE’s ear.
Canary Mission is run by Jonathan Bash who also runs an Israeli nonprofit.
https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/canary-mission/
They have ICE’s ear because a board member of that nonprofit considers Stephen Miller a close friend.
From that link:
One of the board members, an American-born Jerusalem resident named Rabbi Ben Packer, operates an ideological hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City that sends its lodgers to volunteer at illegal West Bank settlements. According to a Haaretz report, Packer distributes the literature of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli politician whose party was outlawed for racism in 1988. Packer says he is a friend of Stephen Miller, the Trump administration official who pushed to have families separated at the U.S. border.
“Stephen Miller is not just my friend, he’s not just our friend, HE IS US!” Packer wrotein a 2016 column. “He is part of that new proud generation, no longer relegated to the fringe. His appointment is spectacular news for the Jewish People and he should be blessed with everything to do great things!”
Seem like modern day SA
I don’t know if this is everywhere but here in Egypt this website just gives you a
“You are not allowed to access this website”
Which sounds slightly ominous
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.
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.
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.
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.
What part of that aren’t you following?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
- For being a Hamas supporter.
- By no judge. Due process is not mandatory in this case.
- She was detained because she’s a Hamas supporter.
- By The standard designated to terrorist supporters.
- Yes, Trump. He is our president after all. Commander in Chief and head of the executive branch
- The policies put in place against terrorists and supporters thereof is the “ultimate deciding force.”
- What happens if I’m wrong about what?
- How are citizenships revoked? If there’s a way, and I meet those conditions, then yes.
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
