I realize that the abduction of Rümeysa Ozturk from the street outside her suburban Boston apartment happened nearly a month ago, but since it was the seminal event that motivated me to start this blog, attend protests, etc. I wanted to take some time and write about it. Just looking at the images of the arrest and reading about it still angers/saddens/sickens me today, and I expect they will for some time.

If the picture above isn’t enough to give you chills, the New York Times reported this in the article linked above.

A video circulating on social media on Wednesday showed a woman in a hijab and white coat being surrounded on a sidewalk, handcuffed and led away by masked plainclothes officers driving unmarked cars.

There is so much wrong with that sentence, but to me, the worst bit is ‘…masked plainclothes officers.’ When did it come to the point where US federal agents arrest unarmed, non-threatening women in such a heavy-handed way? There is no indication that they are federal agents, and there were six of them. W.T.A.F.?

From my perspective, the goal here wasn’t a simple administrative arrest of someone with a (to the best of her knowledge) valid student visa; it was performative theater intended to terrorize. Representatives of the United States government should never act in such a way that it is easy to confuse them with a bunch of Harry Potter LARPers playing as Snatchers. It’s shameful and, in my view, anti-American.

If you have any empathy and put yourself in Rümeysa’s position, you can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for her. If you have an overdeveloped ‘white knight’ syndrome like I do, you are probably furious.

I choose to channel my anger through action because I don’t think any other option makes sense. This type of behavior should never happen to someone legally in the US, and if we don’t stand up and do something about it, the contagion will only spread (it has already spread to green card holders, and I am guessing citizens are next). And so my attendance at protest rallies, calls/emails to representatives, and planning for this site started and will continue until we have fixed the glitch or I am no longer able.

One of the best parts of attending marches, at least to me, is seeing many creative and powerful signs. From the 50501 rally at the Colorado State Capitol on 4/5/2025, the sign that touched me the most was an interpretation of the video clip above. I took a photo of the sign and later converted it into a vector graphic as shown below.

The starkness of the black-and-white figures provides just the right amount of tension, but the two pieces of color take it to another level. The reminder that IT HAPPENED HERE is so, so important. We need to acknowledge that it DID happen, and never forget that we allowed it to. As for the SS arm band? I went back and forth on whether to include it in my rendering of the original image due to its polarizing nature. But I think it calls out that the ICE agents weren’t displaying any insignia or other identification, so it’s left to the viewer to fill the void based on their behavior. I don’t think it’s out of order from that lens.

To be clear, I am not calling ICE agents Nazis, but from what I have read and seen about her arrest, their behavior certainly calls back to 1930’s Germany. The fact that this is a reasonable interpretation of the agents’ behavior is a giant flashing warning sign of where we are and where we may be headed. If this isn’t your vision of America, it’s time to step up and try to do something about it before it’s too late.

As of 4/23/2025, Rümeysa is still being held in a Louisiana (believe me, I will cover the post-arrest BS in another article) detention facility. If you would like to join me in contributing to her defense fund at chuffed.org, you can click this link to chuffed.org or scan the QR code below.

EDITED 5/11/25 TO ADD:

She’s free. But please still consider donating. She has had 45 days of her life taken away, is behind in life and school, and has additional medical issues due to her confinement. She also will need a good war chest to sue the shit out of the administration for trampling on her constitutional rights.