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.
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.
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?
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.
Smoresrock is a Russian Bot
Supporting the end of genocide?? She is a terrorist by the looks of it
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.