Rumeysa Ozturk’s lawyer believes she is being targeted over a school paper editorial she co-authored

snips from the article:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin […] did not specify what specific activities were engaged in by Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts’ doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development. Ozturk had been in the country on an F-1 visa to study.

[…]

Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece a year ago in the school’s student paper, the Tufts Daily, that criticized the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”

“Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention,” said Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk’s lawyer. Khanbabai called the claims against Ozturk “baseless” and said people should be “horrified at the way DHS spirited away Rumeysa in broad daylight.”

  • bostondrivingisworse@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    EVERYONE should be protesting this. The fact that plain clothes agents can snatch someone off the street is horrifying. This needs to be the red line that gets people to take action.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      If anything, it appears that protesting is helping ICE, making it easier to ID people to deport.

      Unless you all are going to start running your protests uniformed and masked like the Nazis do, which seems pretty essential now.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    How do we know it was ICE? It could have been some OTHER human traffickers. If they didn’t have an arrest warrant signed by a judge, it was a kidnapping.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    An important reminder here:

    If ICE, cops, or anyone purporting to be an official wants you to tell them where someone is, you know nothing.

    Don’t help the fascists.

  • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I went to the one in Somerville near the university, was pretty lively. Couldn’t stay for the whole thing, but it was helpful to have a reminder that this is a community of like-minded folks who don’t take this sort of thing sitting down.

    • StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 days ago

      Was there more than one in Somerville? If not, that’s the protest they reference in the article. Maybe you’ll see yourself or a neighbour in the pic.

      Thank you for showing up for Rumeysa and your community. As you say, it’s helpful, contradicting the constantly polarized image of society accelerationists force feed us.

      To quote one of your better Yankee politicians:

      “It’s important to know that a lot of productive activity is happening in person and offline, too. Not all of it can be broadcast online, but we’ve had hundreds of people showing up to our trainings, mobilizations, and more. Keep going. Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters.” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sometime last month

      • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I meant more that I know there were other protests outside of the Boston area, too, mainly driven by university students with concerns about similar happening in their communities.

        I barely know my neighbors, so I don’t think I’d recognize one if I saw them, and a lot of folks including myself were masked up, so I don’t think anyone would recognize me in a photo either.

        Also just need to say that AOC quote is good, but also that “Yankee” is a dirty word here around Boston, haha.

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    Dear imperial media… An illegal detainment is not an “arrest” but a kidnapping.

    I guess these people are excited to promote fascism in USA like they have been promoting fascism in palestine, etc. Same old tricks.