American Rendition: Rümeysa Öztürk’s Journey From Ph.D. Scholar to Trump Target Languishing in Louisiana Cell

The phrase is “political prisoner”, and this is like Russian political prisoners

“He seemed to feel guilty and said ‘we are not monsters,’”

Oh yes you fucking are.

During their reunion in E.’s hometown, the first time they’d been together since the summer, the friends looked up know-your-rights tutorials and discussed whether Öztürk should cut short her doctoral program. They spent their last day together filling out intake forms for legal aid groups — just in case.

Right up until their last minutes together at the train station, they wrestled with how cautious Öztürk should be when she returned to Massachusetts. Öztürk wondered if she should avoid communal dinners, a feature of Muslim social life during the holy month of Ramadan.

“I told her to keep going out, to be with her community. I wanted her to live her life,” E. recalled, her voice breaking.

“And then she got abducted in broad daylight.”

...

“What broke me was her screaming. And knowing that the same thing had just happened to almost 400 people in the Boston area the week before,” said [Fatema Ahmad of the Muslim Justice League], referring to a recent six-day ICE operation.

...

Her last stop [after they moved her over 4 states in one night] was a detention center in Basile about an hour away, where she remains, one of two dozen women in a damp, mouse-infested cell built to hold 14, according to court filings.

Whole thing's a fucking brutal read, but worth it.

The woman who told her that she hopes they “treated her with respect”, was that sarcasm or sincerity?