Way, way back in time, when the atheist schism was running hot, Freethoughtblogs and Skepchick were accused of being like the Stasi by Paula Kirby, a journalist (and also Richard Dawkins’ mistress). It was an event that roiled the atheist blogosphere for a few months. What was notable about it was the accusation that leftists and liberals and feminists were synonymous with the secret police, just itching to disappear anyone they didn’t like, which was weird given that, up to that time, I kind liked Kirby. It’s petty, but right now I wish I could rub her face in a demonstration of how the Stasi would actually behave.
Chilling, isn’t it? The swarm of black-hooded, masked cops surrounding a young woman on the street, handcuffing her, and walking her to a dark car and taking her away. Only it’s not East Germany. It’s Boston. The woman is Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student studying at Tufts University, who was arrested because she participated in a pro-Palestinian protest and wrote an opinion piece for the university newspaper, which of course has been characterized as pro-terrorist, pro-Hamas activity. You can be disappeared for that. She is currently being held at a detention center concentration camp in Louisiana. No charges were filed. No evidence was presented. No due process. No trial.
Surveillance video released Wednesday and obtained from a neighbor by the advocacy group Muslim Justice League appears to show six plainclothes officers casually approaching Ozturk as she walks alone on a sidewalk.
One officer wearing a hat and hoodie grabs her arms, causing Ozturk to shriek in fear as another pulls out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscates her cell phone.
Shortly afterward, the officers all pull cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some of them wearing sunglasses, as one of them restrains Ozturk’s hands behind her back.
As the officers say, “We’re the police,” a person not seen in the video can be heard responding, “Yeah, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?”
One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk is walked into a waiting SUV and driven away.
ICE has not responded to CNN’s request for comment on Ozturk’s case.
Welcome to America.
Hey, Canadians and Mexicans and Europeans etc. who are considering studying in the USA — don’t. Stay home. There are great universities in your home countries or just about anywhere else in the world. Here, you risk finding your studies interrupted by an unplanned vacation in an El Salvadoran prison.
This was on NBC’s Today show just about ten minutes ago. They added that Ozturk was probably sent to a Louisiana prison after a judge issued an order not to remove her from Massachusetts.
Looks like decent Americans are going to have to start the equivalent of this to protect vulnerable people from Trumps fascist goon squads. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Underground-Railroad
Here on the West coast, most of the many foreign students are Chinese and South Asians (Indians).
I checked my old University.
12% of the student body are foreign students. That is a lot.
They are an important part of the student body, not least because they pay full tuition.
They are from 100 different countries. 50% of them are from China.
There is also the option for distance learning i.e. taking classes with the internet.
It’s not the same as being there and isn’t going to work so well when you have to take a lot of lab courses in the STEM fields.
When they run out of these types, they will need new scapegoats. Who will be in the next group? No one is immune, even their own. They are cannibalizing society.
This is cruelty theater.
ICE doesn’t have the people, money, or facilities to find and deport 11 million undocumented migrants. Much less the legal migrants.
There are 12.8 million legal Green card holders and millions of foreign student visas, and legal refugee statuses.
So they are just picking a few high profile easy victims and sending them to concentration camps here or in…El Salvador.
70% of ICE arrests are local police handovers.
In some states on the West coast, the states have laws against handing people over from the local police to…ICE.
Saw that foul scut, Noem, visited that slave prison in El Salvador. Had photo shoot where she stood in front of a cell packed full of tattooed men, their heads shaven and in white boxers, lined up behind her. It was a scene right from Abu Garib. All that was need was Noem to give a “thumbs up” and she’d be a latter day Lynndie England.
That is an easy question.
.1. The Trans people of course.
They’ve been babbling on about Trans people for years now.
A very small minority at 0.5% of the population without much in the way of legal protections.
.2. The perennial group of victims are always the majority, women.
They really want to go after women who get abortions and charge them with murder.
.3. Scientists. The educated. Intellectuals. College professors.
.4. Nonxians.
Muslims are high on their list of people to hate.
Nonwhites, LBGTQIA, children, Progressives.
The To Hate list of the christofascists is always most of the population.
@7. raven : Yup – and most of the good people who are commenters here on this blog already fall into one or more – often multiple categories.
Seriously all of you*, please take care and please preapre and work out ways of surviving this and if need be esacpaing this because , well, youdon’t need me to tell yáll how fucking grim things are looking.
.* Except NOT you Beholder, Vicar and the other Putridity Disunity mob that undermined the ONLY actual alternative and helped and voted for Trump – de facto or directly. You need to stay and experience the full weight of what you have done and have caused everyone, literally everyone onthis planet.
Anyone think this shit would be happenninghad Kamala won? ha d the democratics controlled the Congress and POTUS-cy?
@ 8
The problem is that fascism is now a popular global movement, a cancer that is metastasizing around the world. We are running out of free and safe place for folks like us. Besides, thanks to capitalism, a lot of us can’t afford to move down the street, much less to another continent.
If the Liberals do win the Canadian election, and things continue to deteriorate in the US, it may be possible for US citizens to apply for asylum in Canada.
@ ^ Akira MacKenzie : True.
Do best you can with what you have.
Best wishes.
Further to #10: There is a Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and US, which usually means you’d just get sent back to the States, but there are exceptions. One is if you can demonstrate that staying in the US puts you at risk of persecution or torture. I suspect that will become easier to demonstrate for certain minorities, as time passes.
Once they’re through with the foreign students, how long before they start looking at the American students who participated in the Gaza protests? They can’t deport them, but they can make their lives a living hell. The federal government has all kinds of ways of harassing people.
Hey, this is slander. The Stasi didn’t have to cover their faces when disappearing someone.
It’s not just ICE, and it’s not just “troublesome” foreigners. Halifax folk duo Cassie and Maggie found themselves being asked questions about what country they were loyal to when they were pulled over by Ohio cops recently. They weren’t arrested, but the encounter unnerved them.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-musicians-pulled-over-asked-canada-or-us-1.7488950
I’m really tired of the doomerism I see so much on display that’s completely rooted in the idea that electoral politics are the only venue where anything can ever be done. There are other things that while may cause some discomfort, are far, far more pleasant than the alternatives of fascist dictatorship and genocide of trans and other marginalized people. Fascists are extremely hierarchical, they aren’t especially smart, they just rally behind particular people and do what they say. Without them they are disorganized with no real community or unity. While those leaders may be “powerful” in social and systemic senses, remember they still are regular human beings with regular human bodies just like the rest of us.
@ 16
Well, I ‘m really tired of not being able to flap my arms and fly to the moon, but all the activism and good vibes aren’t going to change that reality.
What you call “doomerism” is simply accepting the reality that we are now unavoidably doomed. Just like the I accept the reality that I can’t fly.
This is the opinion piece for which she’s apparently being deported:
https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj
Pretty radical, eh?
I mean yeah, if activism and good vibes are what people are banking on then the doomerism is warranted. But there are ways to tackle the situation that take advantage of the fact that fascist leaders are physically unexceptional creatures just like anyone else. Because their support is made up of so many competing factions that are united only in support of a handful of people, wouldn’t take much to throw a wrench into their entire mechanism. Rather than relying on the fantasy of millions of people all voting together under a system that at its very core is toothless against this kind of threat, a handful of people can make a very powerful impact with certain means and it’s high time that people consider that an option rather than outright dismissal. Regardless of whether or not one would want to actively work from that angle, increased popular support of it can create an environment where it is more likely to occur
Remember, we are talking about people who literally just accidentally let a reporter into a signal chat where they discussed classified military operations. Much of the military and police can do with regards to security is greatly exaggerated, and is even more of a paper tiger with these bozos in charge gutting everything.
They’re three steps ahead of us on this already.
They started by kidnapping (not deporting) undocumented immigrants. (first they came for..)
They moved to kidnapping legal foreign residents who were here on Green Cards and Student Visas.. there’s yet another report this morning. (then they came for..)
They’ve already announced that certain American citizens (Tesla vandals and, perhaps Protestors?) will be designated Domestic Terrorists.. and as we all know, Terrorists don’t qualify for Civil Rights or due process under Republican Administrations.
They’re laying the groundwork to excuse the kidnapping and rendition of Citizens to their followers. (..and there was no one left to speak for me).
My biggest concern, after the immediate status of these detainees, is.. what happens when someone with a hero-complex and a concealed-cary permit intervenes in one of these kidnapping and ends up shooting some of the Goon-Squad members? They’re just looking for an excuse to declare a national emergency and impose martial law.
BTW.. seems like a good point to mention this too.. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/yale-professor-fascism-canada
“Chilling, isn’t it?”
Yes, like jumping into cold water, at first its shocking, then as your body adjusts you become more comfortable with it. The latter is what they want; normalization of enmity. Trump has his triumvirate, and his thralls will do whatever they’re told unconstrained by something as pesky as a constitution or as insignificant as a judge’s order.
“No charges were filed. No evidence was presented. No due process. No trial.”
No surprise! They understand this: “Justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger” they’re stronger and this is justice, just ask them. Motivated ignorance and venality may keep them in power for a long time. I guess “papers please” will now be done with an American accent.
Aww, it’s humanitarian StevoR! I can’t help but notice there’s a condition attached to “all of you*”, though…
Wait, what happened to humanitarian StevoR? This StevoR sounds like a cheerleader for fascism, who will enthusiastically consent to any “fucking grim” development as long as it’s targeted at the people he hates — which is an ever-growing category encompassing the overwhelming majority of people in this country.
Really, it wasn’t enough to vote for your favorite candidate, we couldn’t think any bad thoughts that would undermine her either? There goes almost everyone except the brainwashed partisan core of MSNBC viewers who thought Harris should have Cheney as her running mate. The same people, I should note, who turned around immediately after November and said “too much woke” and “soft on immigration” cost them the election.
Yes. The Biden admin was already arresting and brutalising anti-Zionist protesters in 2024. Both Kamala and Trump showed no indication of breaking from that continuity.
None of the people getting arrested for this voted for your favorite candidate either. Food for thought, if you were under the mistaken impression they should be spared from the police state nightmare you obviously endorse.
Not in the slightest, you liar.
ICE director Tom Homan said, “There will be collateral arrests.”
So much for targeting criminals.
Sec. State Rubio said today that if you are here on a student visa and do something other than study, you visa will be revoked and you will be deported.
Foreign students now, citizens next.
Give me 30 minutes with the terrorism blacklist and I’ll die laughing. Imagine how fun it would be to put Joe Rogan on the watchlist, etc.
One of the early moves the nazis made was collecting the passports and revoking the citizenship of undesirables. Generally this was just a way to squeeze higher bribes, but it killed a few that couldn’t get into other countries, like the shipful the Brits repatriated who were immediately put on trains to Auschwitz. And there is no way the Brits didn’t know that.
We did the same thing to a whole ocean liner ship of Jews.
This is known as the Voyage of the Damned.
Out of 900 Jews refused admittance to the USA, 254 died during the Holocaust.
Vodeo unavailable now. Security cited as reason. These guys are trying to shore up the security argument to prevent contempt of court charges.
Not unavailable here in Oz; I have this very second checked [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuFIs7OkzYY].
@10 Rob Grigjanis
If the Liberals do win the Canadian election, and things continue to deteriorate in the US, it may be possible for US citizens to apply for asylum in Canada.
I can see it as possible but with Trump’s revocation of the “Dreamers” status and various other temporary refugee status such as for Haitians we may be reduced to triaging the most endangered and US citizens are likely to be low on the totem.
Totalitarians love disappearing people based on their unpopular views
All of those “people” doing the arresting, do they:
go home kiss the spouse pat the dog mow the lawn help the kids with the homework coach the sportball sleep dreamless?
Of course, chigau.
I somehow got fed by the YouTube algo a PR event from some mid-tier Florida Law Enforcement agency triumphantly announcing the arrest of some people, standard drugs-on-the-table stuff, but what struck me was that beside the guy making the announcements were a bunch of cops wearing the kind of ‘camo on the sleeves, comfortable fabric for the torso’ gear that was developed for soldiers in hot climates, and they were all wearing black balaclavas. I suppose that if challenged on it, the cops might claim that they’re afraid that because they’re so good at finding drugs that the cartels would put out a hit on them individually or something. (but somehow, not the chief giving the PR event….).
Americans have seriously gottten far too comfortable with the gestapo/SS-ization of their domestic policing agenices. All those cops cosplaying as ‘operators’ or ‘warfighters’ or ‘special-forces’ or whatever the currently fashionable name is for America’s overseas death squads.
Rob Grigjanus @12- it appears that all international agreements are null and void as far as the United States is concerned, as long as Donald Trump has the say.
[hm, didn’t expect that.
#33 links to the scene in the movie Brazil where the protagonist discovers his friend is his torturer]
Yes. They genuinely think they’re the good guys, doing the right thing. And a lot of other people agree with them.
@ 33 Morales
You posted it you numbskull. What do you mean you “didn’t expect it”?
Buffoon.
raven@#28:
We did the same thing to a whole ocean liner ship of Jews.
Yup, it was the same ship. They were turned away at New York and went to Britain. If I recall correctly, the Brits at that time were trying to reduce migration to Palestine. Or that was one of the cloud of excuses everyone was popping.
Nationalism seems to me like it guarantees an ineffective response to climate change. Its notion of “borders” is going to kill a hell of a lot of people, unfortunately they won’t be the capitalists that will also be guaranteeing an ineffective response.
Heh.
I posted it, but the preview does not show the thumbnail.
In this case, I get
Video unavailablePlayback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner
Watch on YouTube
Where the "watch" link works fine.
Thus my clarification.
A fitting sig for you. I approve of it.Marcus @39:
Agreed. It’s one of the reasons that many more died from COVID than should have. The “vaccinate our own people first” mentality is profoundly stupid blinkered short-term bullshit.
Marcus Ranum@26 one thing about Rogan is that he’s pretty much stopped leaving the US. He apparently doesn’t like flying, and has decided he doesn’t want to be around horrible foreigners like Canadians. So there’s less chance of him running afoul of the authorities.
I think Dana White’s support for Trump will bite him in the ass sooner or later. The number of foreign fighters in the UFC would seem to be a risk for at least some of them getting caught up in immigration restrictions, or even pissing off the wrong screener at a point of entry. Say Trump decides Brazilians deserve visa restrictions because they’re actually going to try poor old Bolsinaro. And I heard a story that Trump told White he should have what is effectively an “Americans only” UFC division.
Borders and immigration police are a way of keeping this an apartheid planet.