Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) criticized the New York Police Department (NYPD) early Wednesday after the NYPD confirmed Tuesday night that it had arrested a protester in an unmarked van.
“This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women from the streets and throwing them in unmarked trucks,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, retweeting a publication by the American Civil Liberties Union that showed images of the encounter.
The first-term congresswoman added: “Not protecting our rights is giving them away. It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism.”
Our civil liberties are on the edge.
This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching street women and throwing them in unmarked trucks.
Not protecting our rights is giving them away. It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism. https://t.co/pw20WF05KK
– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Boston Globe backs Markey in the primary against the Kennedy Rapinoe HBO special to introduce Ocasio-Cortez, the founder of the ‘1619’ project Tlaib talks about why he hasn’t backed Biden yet MORE (@AOC) July 29, 2020
New York police confirmed the arrest in a series of tweets. According to police, the woman was arrested for allegedly damaging the New York police cameras on five separate occasions around City Hall Park.
“The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects,” said the New York Police Department. “When she was placed in the unmarked gray minivan of the Warrant Squad, she was behind a cordon of New York police officers wearing bright blue and yellow uniform shirts to help effect the arrest.”
During the arrest, officers were “robbed with stones and bottles,” the department said.
When she was placed in the unmarked gray minivan of the Warrant Squad, she was behind a cordon of New York police officers wearing bright blue and yellow uniform shirts to help make the arrest.
– NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 29, 2020
The woman’s arrest comes two weeks after reports appeared in Portland, Oregon, where federal agents have been deployed since late June by federal officers, dressed in unidentifiable military uniforms, picking up and detaining protesters in unmarked vans. .
The reports, as well as the overall handling of protesters in recent months, have sparked outrage from many Democratic lawmakers. Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place across the country since Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, a black man, in late May.
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