Summary
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, was detained in Somerville, MA, by masked agents claiming to be police, without charges or transparency.
The Trump administration alleges she supported Hamas, citing unverified intelligence, after her student visa was revoked.
Der Spiegel linked her detention to pro-Palestinian advocacy, including an opinion piece urging divestment from Israel.
The incident sparked outrage, highlighting long-standing surveillance and detainment of Muslim Americans under national security pretenses.
Civil liberties advocates warn of increasing government overreach targeting minority communities.
How are such agents alive? They are masked and ambush an innocent woman.
Where is the good guy with a gun?Not sure if you’re being sarcastic (the internet has ruined my sarcasm detector), but the “good guy with a gun” is just a mythological figure invented by the gun lobby.
I’m not saying good people don’t pack heat, just that the “good guy with a gun” is about as real as the Easter Bunny.
It was part sarcasm, exactly that the good guy with a gun is myth, and it’s a myth that guns help defend against government overreach.
But there is also the fact that there is a LOT of gun crime in USA, and it is absolutely a risk IMO that these people could get shot by a vigilante.
But as you say, the good guys don’t pack heat, so those that do are probably perfectly OK with this.
Ah, makes sense. I live in a red state, so I have to hear the “good guy with a gun” fallacy pretty much on the daily.
Still think @Buffalox makes a decent point. You never know there could be some cowboy out there, sees a woman getting dragged into a van by masked men, and starts popping off rounds.
The comment you responded to works either way.
It points out that the good guy with a gun is never actually there when needed, because its a fantasy character.
While at the same time, it actually wonders why not a single person opened shots at these masked men, in the most heavily armed country in the world.
deleted by creator
Spot on. 👍
Eh, I’d say about as real an ethical landlord. They do exist, but they’re never around when you need them.
But there are a handful of cases in recent history where an armed civilian stopped an active shooter. I think it happened with one of the church mass shootings, I want to say Georgia, but that might have been an off duty cop (technically a civilian).
Calling player 2…
Get Ready, Player 2!
Where is the good guy with a gun?
In a coffee shop cosplaying as a tough guy.
We need the Black Panthers back.
Removed by mod
I think doing blackface wouldn’t be helpful
Removed by mod
You’re suggesting a bystander pull a gun on ICE agents? How does that possibly go well for anyone?
Are they ICE agents?
There’s a reason we, in the past, set up things like badges and uniforms to identify agents of the civil authority. It’s so we know there is at least the pretense that the rights of the person being arrested will be respected and that they will go to a location where they can be checked on and communicate with friends/family and receive legal assistance for the charges brought against them.
Masked men with guns shouting “I’m definitely police” and bagging a woman is not that.
Their bosses pretending this is good enough is, at the very very very least, endangering federal agents unnecessarily. To say nothing of the rights of the people they’re disappearing without the pretense of arresting them.
Probably ICE. You can see them pull out those necklace badges from under their hoodies in the video.
Badges are cheap and can be easily faked. Without additional confirmation (squad car, uniform, LEO id), its absolutely reasonable to assume these people are impersonating police officers and are therefore criminals.
In America, we have the right to shoot criminals who resist detention. I have a feeling these pigs would resist. All you need is an excuse.
Anyone can claim they are ICE and take a woman off the street. There’s a reason why they need to legally identify themselves.
Why not read the response I gave Admiral Patrick that had a somewhat similar response?
Massachusetts does not have a stand your ground law. It would be illegal for anyone else to step in with a firearm. She is also not able to acquire a firearm under Massachusetts law.
Not having a stand your ground law just means you have a duty to escape/remove yourself from the situation if it is safe to do so. It does not eliminate your right to self defense or extend it to defense of another. If someone is being kidnapped, they reasonably could not escape.
That being said, I doubt it would be ruled in favor of a defendant in this case.
She was also unable to acquire a firearm, and the police did technically identify themselves as police. Very shady overall.
the police did technically identify themselves as police
Verbally and with noting to help back up that claim.
It would be illegal for anyone else to step in with a firearm
It’s also illegal for people in plain clothes to abduct women off the street.
People carry a gun to protect themselves and their family. Not necessarily random strangers. In fact, most state CCW classes tell you to stay away from situations where you might have to use your gun to help others.
The good guy with the gun is either a cop, or a concealed carrier in the middle of the situation. In this case, cops were the bad guys.
Yup… the proper response to this situation as a bystander is to film and expose the situation. Even in a “stand your ground” state, it’s not justified to start shooting. (Not legal advice - ALWAYS know the local laws)
No the response is to fucking rise the fuck up. Because we’re next. They starting with foreigners but they come for us too. When they do Yes shoot fucking Ice agents. Especially masked men and women. Because thats fascism.
I really, really don’t want this to pop off. I want there to be some other means.
I’m just having a real hard time seeing what other choice people with their backs against the wall will have.
Ok… LEGAL response.
You had better be sure I would be up in those idiots’ faces with my camera causing a huge scene
My response legally Redacted.
First they came for those with student visas
And I filmed from the sidelines.And I filmed from the sidelines.
And lived to tell the tale far and wide.
And there was no one left to tell.
The people doing this don’t care who you tell if nobody is going to do anything other than film from the sidelines and complain.
deleted by creator
It’s easy to SAY that. You would also be in deep shit.
I’d die for it. And I would still do it.
Hopefully they won’t come for you just because you made that post online. You and I are on the same side, friend.
Honestly, if they are coming for people about their posts, I’ll be targeted. For sure. Good luck, friend.
Be honest with us, you don’t own a firearm.
It’s OK you didn’t get it.
Good guy with a gun is a myth, and is never there.
Still a bunch of masked men terrorizing a woman, should be an obvious target in the worlds most heavily armed country.
But even in this situation the good guy with a gun is absent, and the guns don’t help against government overreach, which is thepurpose ofexcuse for the 2nd amendment.
“We’re the police. Relax,” one of the men says
Fam I’d rather be kidnapped by a rando than the police. Relaxing is the last thing I would be doing while getting swarmed by pigs
Removed by mod
Now this is what we should be out protesting in mass, among other things. Kidnapping people in broad daylight in unmarked uniforms, with masks on? That’s not police, that’s a bunch of Brownshirt thugs.
Yeah and this just sets a precedent for other people/groups… Wanna kidnap someone? Wear all black cover your faces and say you’re the police…
My guess is they’re hired security thugs and not actually ICE agents, hence why they’re not showing a badge or uniform.
Which is 100% illegal
The Proud Boys are more like the Brownshirts: useful for the rise of fascism, but ultimately, a disposable group that was never going to get any real power under the regime. The way ICE is acting is more analogous to the SS or Gestapo: an unaccountable group of government goons that disappear undesirables and dissidents.
There are dozens of things that have happened in the last 2 months that Americans should be protesting.
Millions of them.
Constantly.
Yeah, that’s on purpose. It’s the fascist playbook. Flood the zone with bullshit so nobody can pick one thing to be upset about, and then normalize it.
Gestapo. America is Nazi now.
They did it in the 50s with communists. Probably before.
Dude… Totally insane. I was saying for years this Gestapo shit was going on and was only getting worse. Absolutely horrifying to see this happening in my country after all the patriotic bullshit they blew up our asses about how great the United States was as a kid. I’m ashamed to be an American.
It is no longer your country.
So we’re getting the Black Panthers back together right?
I desperately want this to happen, but as a white dude Im in an awkward position
Russia 2.0.
Reich 4.0
I really should start carrying a gun to protect myself.
The second amendment is not restricted to old white men. Just saying
the police will act as if it is
And that’s WHY the second amendment
You should look up how the “Kristallnacht” came to be.
That would result in you getting heavily perforated instead of disappeared. Up to you which is preferable, I guess.
Ever notice how cops tend not to fuck with armed protesters?
They don’t fuck with armed conservatives. Armed leftists get bombed from helicopters and cut down with belt-fed machine guns.
Only when they’re white men. The rest tend to get shot as the officers fear for their lives.
I rather not get disappeared. Is that much better?
And if the worst does happen, maybe they’ll consider the risks of ambushing the next person. It is an extremely dangerous thing to do!
Every day my judgement that the US is already lost gets stronger. What a fucking shit show. i still got some colleagues who believe that the democracy is the US is not lost. Hard not to laugh in their faces.
Fuckin joke of a country, armed to the teeth for absolutely nothing besides shooting up schools and killing minorities.
Remember to stay strapped.
And if they try to kidnap you and don’t identify themselves with badges you’re free to kill them in self defense.
Gestapo shit.
America, the formerly land of the free.
This is what you voted for protest-non-voters. Congratulations!
I’m wondering if these comments are starting to hurt at this point. Yeah I’m pissed at non voters too, in protest or otherwise. Is the continued ostracizing beneficial in any way though? Shouldn’t we be trying to talk with them on a way to move forward? If we continue to divide up the left into too many bite sized chunks we’ll never be able to properly organize at the scale needed in the US
the vote blue, no matter who crowd is just as reactionary as maga is and just like maga they have no interest in coalition building, only in revenge.
You mean like the protest voters and non voters were before the election when everyone with a brain tried to warn them that this was going to happen?
Becasue I don’t recall a whole lot of coalition building there. Just reactionary outrage.
the people who didn’t vote were all democrats; aka the non-coalition building type of voters so expecting them to do anything other than not voting was unrealistic.
ROFL! Yeah, because as we all remember- social media was chock full of registered democrats yelling at everyone to not vote for gEnOciDE jOe.
Man. You people will grasp at any straw you can find to avoid the responsibility of taking part in what caused this problem.
Go check the vote counts; the leftists justifiably calling Biden “genocide Joe” remained the same as it always has, excluding Obama, (as did the Republicans’ vote counts also did). the Democrat vote counts took a sizeable dip in this election.
Democrats aren’t even coalition building w their fellow Democrats anymore and blue-maga takes like these explain why and it’s going to keep getting worse until you stop drinking the Kool aid.
Removed by mod
This is telling people to vote. (for Dems.) Because this is what happens when you vote otherwise.
Yeah, you’re not helping by saying shit like this.
And this is coming from someone who is hated by many on this site for calling out the protest voters/non-voters.
We need to vote against fascism when it’s on the ballot, and this last election it was and in this case, the Democrats were the only choice. But let’s not pretend that they’re a good party.
Me: “vote”.
You: “you’re not helping”
Unbelievable.
No you said that “this is what happens when you don’t vote Dem.” These people have defined their entire personalities around hating the Democratic party. That’s as deep as it goes for most of them. Telling them that just makes it worse.
Maybe just take the criticism and move on? Otherwise it might start to seem like you’re intentionally trying to make the left look bad.
Maybe just take the criticism and move on?
Ditto.
Can you point to the criticism you made so I can take it?
The protest voters did not meaningfully impact the election
You’re right we should have voted for Hindenburg, that’d prevent this. You can’t vote your way out of fascism friend, you must fight through strikes, protests, and armed revolt or flee.
