4w ago

The new video of federal agents ambushing a student and disappearing with her should chill you to your core

It’s Hard to Believe This Video Was Filmed in the United States. It No Longer Should Be.

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The Trump administration alleges she supported Hamas, citing unverified intelligence, after her student visa was revoked.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.

Politics @beehaw.org

Chris Remington @beehaw.org

4w ago

The New Video of Federal Agents Ambushing a Student and Disappearing With Her Should Chill You to Your Core

slate.com /news-and-politics/2025/03/donald-trump-news-ice-immigration-student-rumeysa-ozturk.html

World News @lemmy.world

ByteOnBikes @slrpnk.net

4w ago

The New Video of Federal Agents Ambushing a Student and Disappearing With Her Should Chill You to Your Core

slate.com /news-and-politics/2025/03/donald-trump-news-ice-immigration-student-rumeysa-ozturk.html

89 comments

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.
  
  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.
  
  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!
- 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.
  
  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?
- We need the Black Panthers back.
- 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.
  
  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)
  
  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 the ~~purpose of~~ excuse for the 2nd amendment.
- Where is the good guy with a gun?
  In a coffee shop cosplaying as a tough guy.

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.
- 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.

“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

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

Gestapo. America is Nazi now.
- They did it in the 50s with communists. Probably before.

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
- https://lemmy.world/c/liberalgunowners
- You should look up how the "Kristallnacht" came to be.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht
- 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?
  
  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!

Russia 2.0.
- Reich 4.0

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.

Gestapo shit.

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.

America, the formerly land of the free.

https://youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY
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.
  
  This is telling people to vote. (for Dems.) Because this is what happens when you vote otherwise.
- 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.

89 comments