It must be exhausting for radicals to be always outraged about everything. I don’t know about you, but it would get real boring real quick to have to respond to everything that happens in American society as if the world were teetering on the brink of destruction.
Me? I’d just say “Let the world blow up” and then get back to my grilled cheese sandwich. So I guess I don’t have what it takes to be a serious, committed activist/revolutionary.
The New York City Police Department is being accused of kidnapping an innocent woman off the streets and tossing her into an unmarked SUV. It outraged the ACLU. It outraged Black Lives Matter.
And it outraged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who got the vapors because, well, the ACLU apparently said to get hysterical.
“This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, retweeting a post from the American Civil Liberties Union that showed footage of the encounter.
The first-term congresswoman added: “To not protect our rights is to give them away. It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism.”
“Our civil liberties are on the brink,” she wailed. Meanwhile, the ACLU made it “Breaking News.”
BREAKING: We’re receiving reports that at least one protester was abducted off the streets today by unmarked “officers” — this time in New York City. These dangerous, abusive, and indefensible actions must stop. Law enforcement must be held accountable.
If you listen closely you can almost hear the jackboots echoing off the ancient cobblestones of New York City. Well, maybe not cobblestones. And they aren’t ancient. But AOC can hear them and she is sounding the alarm.
Imagine this happening in our greatest city?
Our civil liberties are on brink.
This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans.
To not protect our rights is to give them away. It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism. https://t.co/pw20WF05KK
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 29, 2020
First of all, the woman was wanted by the law — perhaps the ACLU never heard of “the law” but it’s all written down for them. Maybe they should glance at it once in a while.
Secondly, the woman wasn’t “abducted” or “snatched” or “kidnapped.” She was arrested using standard police procedure that no one else cares about.
“The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects,” NYPD said. “When she was placed into the Warrant Squad’s unmarked gray minivan, it was behind a cordon of NYPD bicycle cops in bright yellow and blue uniform shirts there to help effect the arrest.”
During the arrest, officers were “assaulted with rocks and bottles,” the department noted.
Oh, dear. Looks like AOC and the ACLU sort of forgot to mention that last part.
When she was placed into the Warrant Squad's unmarked gray minivan, it was behind a cordon of NYPD bicycle cops in bright yellow and blue uniform shirts there to help effect the arrest.
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 29, 2020
So what in the Sam Hill are AOC and the ACLU screaming about? They saw the perfect opportunity to gin up fear and outrage by trying to suggest that the Trump/DHS/federal jackboot crackdown was spreading and soon would come to your peaceful suburban street in your hometown.
Beware the knock on the door in the middle of the night. It’s probably not your next-door neighbor claiming his phone is dead and asking to use yours.
It could be AOC’s imaginary oppressors in blue coming for you.
Solidarity forever!
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