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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
She wrote something the administration didn’t like.
What was written?
From 1933 to 1934 in 3 months. Clock is ticking dear american people.
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.
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.
What was fascinating, or perhaps horrific is a better word, about the article that I didn’t know about is the brief mention of “The Canary Mission”
Here’s from their about page:
Canary Mission documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond. Canary Mission investigates hatred across the entire political spectrum, including the far right, far left and anti-Israel activists.
Canary Mission is motivated by a desire to combat the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses. We pursue our mission by presenting the words and deeds of individuals and organizations that engage in anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry on the far right, far left and among the array of organizations that comprise the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Essentially they gather dossiers on private individuals that they claim are anti-semitic. So, I looked up the woman that was taken off the street like a Ukrainian draft-dodger.
https://canarymission.org/individual/Rumeysa_Ozturk
Rumeysa Ozturk engaged in anti-Israel activism in March 2024, in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023.
Ozturk is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
What was the anti-Israel activism, you ask? I figured it was some sort of protest. Sort of like the one in New York where they occupied a building.
Nope
On March 26, 2024, Ozturk co-authored an op-ed published in the Tufts Daily newspaper titled: “Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions.” The authors urged “President Kumar and the Tufts administration to meaningfully engage with and actualize the resolutions passed by the Senate.”
The op-ed referred to the passing of anti-Israel resolutions by the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, which demanded the University “…acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments, and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”
At Tufts university, the Community Union Senate (not really sure what this is. a student council or something) passed a 3/5ths majority resolution urging the president of the university to
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acknowledge the Palestinian genocide
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apologize for some statements, I don’t know what
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disclose its investments
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divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel
She co-wrote an op-ed essentially demanding the president follow the resolution that was passed. That’s the “anti-Israel activism” she’s guilty of. I suppose that’s enough to be deported. Be careful out there guys. If you aren’t a citizen, shut up about your political views until you are. Because there are eyes out there watching everything you do. Even if you are… consider what you are doing. You may be making an enemy of a vindictive state that is willing to break the rules.
Here’s the op-ed, in case you’re interested: https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj
These resolutions were the product of meaningful debate by the Senate and represent a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law. Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide.
Lock 'em up, I guess. If you believe that Palestinian civilians have a right to life then you are a terrorist-sympathizer in this administration’s opinion.
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For many years I was against punching nazis. It was time for debate. I am still against punching peaceful protestors.
But secret police deserve more than a punch.
Nazis want to murder people for simply existing. We should always be for punching Nazis
This is terrifying. Anybody can pretend to be ICE and kidnap in broad daylight.
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.
Type of shit they tell you to expect in China, except its the USA
hey kind of a random question but there is a tankie on my groupchat that i want to send proof of china disappearing people can you show me something i can send her to shut her up about how good china is?
June 4th 1989
It sounds as if you’re frustrated at her for not recognizing that people disappear in China, sometimes people like critics of the government. Do you think there’s absolutely nothing good that China does?
Yeah, what about all the good the
USChina (of course I meant China!) does, that should make up for their war crimes and crimes against humanity against their own citizens.Sure, recognizing the light when it’s eclipsed by plenty of shadow can seem cartoonish. We can decide to close our eyes and be left in the darkness. We can decide not to pay attention or learn from something we deem unacceptable.
Is there absolutely nothing that China is doing that the rest of the world could learn from? Do you know how much China is investing in green energy in relation to the west? Do you think I am unable to recognize problems in China while at the same time recognizing that it is the single largest investor in green energy on Earth today? Do you think I’m unable to recognize that the United States has a great elite educational system? Or that I’m unable to recognize that the USA has amazing elite research facilities? Or that during the twentieth century it was a world leader in terms of State investments in strategic technologies?
It’s the kind of thing that happened in Nazi Germany.
Yep. People just disappearing. There are already a lot of reports. Its straight up facism at work. Thats terrifying.
source for these reports?
This fucking post
There are already a lot of reports.
This post is one report.
The claim is that there are lots of reports of this happening.
I know about the 2020 plainclothes, masked, secret police kidnappings, and I know of this one. Are there others, or was the “lots of reports” just made up?
Edit: grammar. removed a (hopefully) unnecessary comma
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.
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 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 😎
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.
I implore you to go search “Ozturk” on YouTube. A video from the NY Post comes up. Read the comments. I cannot believe the reaction of such an un-empathetic population.
Thank you for this. I wish I didn’t but at least I know now that this is what the US wants. This is what they voted for. No more rights. No more constitutional protection. No freedom. The land of the privileged.
You’re assuming 90% of those are not bots.
Does it really help you to pretend that our enemies don’t actually exist? No, your fellow Americans actually do hold these beliefs. They want this and they would not hesitate to do the same to you.
I absolutely believe at least half of them are just deplorable humans.
YouTube is a cesspool on a good day. If you know where to look (such as “anti-woke” “content” creators’ videos), you can easily find an overwhelming number of shitheads in the comments cheering for overt bigotry or violence against others. A recent news topic and barely-moderated videos of a non-white woman getting disappeared? They’re coming out of the woodwork for that, guaranteed.
