My ethics and diversity class on Wednesday was devoted to a brief overview of First Amendment law. The class comprises nine graduate students and advanced undergrads, and they have shown throughout the semester that they are engaged and compassionate young people.
I began with a video in the news. You’ve probably seen it. It shows black-clad, masked thugs, apparently with ICE, approaching a young woman on a sidewalk at Tufts University, hauling her off to a van and driving her away. Her name is Rumeysa Ozturk, and she’s a Ph.D. student and a Turkish citizen who’s in the U.S. on a student visa.
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It’s the latest shocking image in a series of shocking images we’ve been subjected to recently as the Trump administration — my friend Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub has simply taken to calling it “the regime” — tracks down international students who have been involved in some form of pro-Palestinian activism and targets them for deportation.
The only activity I have seen attributed to Ozturk that might have led to her being targeted is an op-ed she helped write calling on the university to recognize Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and to divest from Israel. You may agree or disagree; I mostly disagree, though I am appalled by the brutal manner in which Israel’s Netanyahu government has pursued its war against the terrorists of Oct. 7, 2023. But the First Amendment gives Ozturk an absolute right to speak and write freely, regardless of whether she’s a citizen.
According to accounts in The Tufts Daily student newspaper and Cambridge Day, thousands of protesters gathered in Somerville Wednesday night to show their support for Ozturk.
Cambridge Day reporter Jodi Hilton quoted Asli Memisoglu, a native of Turkey who graduated from Tufts in 1987, as saying: “One thing I’ve always cherished was the sanctity of free speech, but that’s threatened now.”
In The Tufts Daily, Emily Isaac, a Somerville resident, said: “People are always going to fight back. Everyone likes to say what they would have done during a historical atrocity, or during times of fascism, and I think it’s important to recognize the signs of when it’s happening.”
I wish I could say that Isaac was overstating matters.
Since Trump began his second term on Jan. 21, authoritarianism has descended upon us swiftly and mercilessly. Universities, law firms and public media organizations have all been targeted, and the people who are running them don’t know whether they should fight, surrender or find some sort of middle ground. Immigrants are whisked off to hellish prisons in El Salvador on the flimsiest of pretexes. Our country is quickly becoming unrecognizable.
On Threads last night, I saw a comment from someone who is definitely not a Trumper that, well, this is what people voted for. My response: Democracy without protection for individual rights is just another word for dictatorship.
We are in very bad shape, and the courts can only do so much.
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In a sense the person who said “this is what people voted for” was right. People had plenty of information available about what kind of President Trump would be in his second term, much of it from Trump himself (remember “going to be a dictator on day one”?). They went ahead and voted for him anyway. So it’s still on them.
Who voted for this, though? Somerville didn’t. Medford didn’t. Massachusetts as a whole didn’t. New England generally didn’t. And this is where the kidnapping happened.
Well put, Dan. I attended the rally yesterday and was extremely impressed with the students who organized such a huge event in less than 48 hours of preparation and publicity. It is clear that the Tufts student body, many faculty and staff, and a significant sprinkling of (mostly older) community members are in deep opposition to the dictatorial behavior of our federal government. It is also to the students’ credit that the rally remained peacful and nonviolent despite the outrage from viewing the video of the kidnapping of PHD student Rumeysa Ozturk, as you described.
Chilling. Seems she was targeted by Canary Mission.
I really think you have this backwards, We live in a time when all points of views are beginning to be allowed, even republican and conservative views, some i don’t like but then most of the progressive views are not what i will ever support.
Everything must be on the table,
Why would anyone support hamas killing college students at a rave at 630 in the desert. That is so offensive , and those that support mass murder should be outed.
There is no Fascism today , its just a return to common sense and asking the same hard unconformable questions to both sides. which the left has refused to do for a very long time.
Why didn’t hamas in the last 17 years make the gaza a wonderful place to visit and vacation? Instead they spent money on tunnels and bombs, and let sewage flow into the sea so the beaches were polluted.
I look forward to the day we can act like adults and discuss different views withing losing out temper and minds into the ozone.
Here’s Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in his great dissent in Abrams v. United States:
I always hated it when people on deadline made a big deal about the placement of commas, but in this case, in the case of your comment, I don’t know what you are trying to say. But if you are saying you don’t agree with the First Amendment or believe it should be selectively applied, then I completely disagree with your comment. (But I would never try to take away your right to make such a comment.)
There is no evidence she supports Hamas. She is involved in Peace Studies and opposes the war in Gaza.
There is a theme here: People who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza and/or support Palestinians are being selectively targeted. It’s unlikely that the government has precise information on their activities from their own surveillance; some organization or people must be reporting these people to the government.
One of their goals is to silence dissent against Trump or positions that Trump aligns with. Another goal is to be as heartless and cruel as possible to rule by fear, like the nazis.
Only our judges can save us now, and the SCOTUS may have to decide what kind of future they want for the First Amendment, citizenship, legal visitors, and our universities. But the people will fight as much as we can.
These actions could be the only thing that Trumpers are happy about as Trump is failing in nearly everything else he promised to people. Ganging up on minorities and foreigners is always a way to arouse nationalism.
Follow up: Betar US and Canary Mission are the two groups responsible for these disgusting illegal kidnappings.
Of course. Interestingly, the non-mainstream press has been reporting on this for a while now and many in the mainstream press have not and instead have spent a long time validating those who make these demonstrators out to be villains.