cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/38264400
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) on Friday reflected on being arrested outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility earlier in the day, arguing he was being targeted after visiting the New Jersey detention center with three Democratic members of Congress.
Excerpt:
“Nothing happened for a long, long time, you know, for at least over an hour. And then, you know, after that, they finally told us to leave, and I told him I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me,” Baraka said during his appearance on MSNBC’s “The Briefing” Friday night. “So it looked like it was targeted.”
He later added that ICE officials “obviously targeted me.”
“I wasn’t the only one out there. They came directly to me and tried to arrest me … no one else. Me,” the mayor told host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “And so, I honestly believe, you know, I was targeted there.”
and so it begins
I was hoping Ras got arrested as a protest. It appears the situation was less about civil disobedience on his part and more about ICE/DHS agents simply flexing their authority.
