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.
This is horrifying. This person broke no laws. If Trump is doing this to valid green card holders for exercising their first amendment rights, then we are one degree of separation from Trump doing this to U.S. citizens who criticize him.
It’s only going to continue getting worse. Make an exit plan if you haven’t already.
Starts with green card holders, then it progresses to those who weren’t born in the US via denaturalization (as the administration has already started with), and finally it gets to all citizens. The people cheering for this are the ones who don’t realize that the leopards will eat their faces sooner or later as well.
I don’t know if it’s related to the culture of American exceptionalism, that people are so used to the idea that they’re special and that they won’t be affected, that they never even stop to consider the possibility.
they aren’t those people though.
There have already been articles of Trump voters blindsided that their spouses have been deported acting shocked like his policies wouldn’t affect them because they thought their relatives were the “good ones” of those people. As if that adminstration isn’t just a cudgel they all wanted in the first place…
It’s because they don’t know it’s happening. My Fox watching dad or ABC/CNN watching Mom will never see this. Some younger relatives I have will never see this. My prepper aunts/uncles will never see this.
I keep saying this over and over again, but… it’s the algorithm. It’s the information environment.
My one viable exit plan went up in smoke today. Then I spent a while crying because I don’t know what to do. I’ve made a list of what to pack if I had to leave at a moment’s notice and I keep searching for other potential avenues out (before it gets extra-crazy), but it is not easy.
Sorry to hear that, bud. If it’s any consolation, I think the media is making it seem like these sorts of events are more commonplace than they actually are, and the Trump administration is so incompetent that they are actually lagging far behind the Biden administration who set the record for most deportations in a single term.
That being said, it’s not the quantity, but the brazen unlawfulness of each and every one of these extrajudicial deportations that is the concerning part. We’re still only 2 months into this administration and it feels like a year has passed already with the absolute blitz of unlawful and corrupt conduct coming from the White House.
I’m not ready to give up the fight just yet, but I feel like true civil war is inevitable at this point unless by some miracle there are adults out there with the gumption to take the wheel back from Trump and Musk and start steering the ship in the right direction again while there’s still time.
Stay strong and keep your chin up. As long as your are prepared one step ahead of everyone else, you’ll likely be okay. Even if that’s just making sure you have a bag packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.