We have been discussing the controversy of the use of unmarked cars by federal officers to arrest people in Portland. As I have written, the use of unmarked cars and (even those these officers worn police markings) plain clothes is a common practice and not unconstitutional. Now an arrest by the NYPD using an unmarked carhas led to similar objections. MSNBC host Chris Hayes even declared that the view below constitutes a “kidnapping.” It isn’t. It is not even illegal or improper to use an unmarked vehicle. The basis for the arrest can be challenged but the rhetoric of the coverage is outstripping the reality of the law. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has declared the video to be evidence of an authoritarian takeover.
Hayes declared on Twitter “This is…kidnapping” after the posting of this video of plainclothes NYPD officers taking a woman into custody in an unmarked van on Manhattan’s East Side.
Hayes does not appear concerned over the violence against officers or the conditions leading to the use of an unmarked vehicle.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) agreed with Hayes’ view:
“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.”
This was not a “snatching.” It was an arrest using an unmarked van and police showed videotapes showing the women committing alleged crimes.
The NYPD sates that the officers were arresting a suspect in five crimes. Moreover, it was clearly arrest with uniformed police also present at the scene.
The NYPD also indicated that this was an arrest being conducted in highly difficult circumstances. “In regard to a video on social media that took place at 2nd Ave & 25 Street, A woman taken into custody in an unmarked van was wanted for damaging police cameras during 5 separate criminal incidents in & around City Hall Park. The arresting officers were assaulted with rocks & bottles . . . When officers from the Warrant Squad took the woman into custody in a gray NYPD minivan this evening, they were assaulted with rocks and bottles. The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.”
Once again, I am deeply concerned with the hyperbolic and inaccurate coverage. While MSNBC has been quick (and often justified) in criticizing President Trump for inaccurate statements and fueling divisions, this is an example of how such rhetoric goes unchallenged by its own hosts and commentators. The legal analysis and members of Congress on MSNBC and other networks has often advanced highly dubious theories of criminality against Trump or his Administration.
Claims that the use of unmarked cars is unlawful or constitutes kidnapping is the type of unhinged commentary that has fueled violence against officers. Hundreds of officers have been injured or killed since the start of these protests. Calling them kidnappers only give greater cover for rioters and groups like Antifa who are targeting officers. The same is true when Speaker Nancy Pelosi called federal law enforcement in places like Portland “stormtroopers” or other politicians referring to them as “Gestapo” or “secret police.”
Such comments by figures like Hayes are no doubt popular but this hysteria will only fan the flames of further unrest. Indeed, while he may believe that these irresponsible comments will only undermine those with opposing views, history has shown that such unhinged rage is neither predictable more controllable. Declarations of state kidnappings and authoritarian takeovers will be used a license for greater violence and rioting by extremist groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum.
“The end justifies the means.”
– Sergey Nechayev
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The Bolsheviks, the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs), don’t have to make sense, they just have to take Americans’ money, Americans’ culture and Americans’ nation.
Oh, and according to the thesis of “diversity,” you must love and accept them and hate all white people, Americans.
How long do Americans let this go on?
______________________________
The end justifies the means is a phrase of Sergey Nechayev, the 19th century Russian revolutionary.
Sergey Nechayev [1] (2 October 1847 – 21 November or 3 December 1882) was a Russian revolutionary terrorist.[2]
He was a leader in the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including, but not limited to, blackmail and murder.[3]
– Wiki
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Ironically, the American Founders required citizens to be “…free white person(s)…” and Lincoln and the U.S. Congress arranged, passed and funded efforts at compassionate repatriation of freed slaves.
Just watched the video tape. Men jumped out of an unmarked white mini van and grabbed the victim. There were no badges in evidence. The victim was roughed up and slammed into the van. Nothing was evident except that a human being was being shoved into a van and one of the perpetrators was indicating that he had a gun. Nothing indicated any lawful activity. Professor, I hope this never happens to you. It looked like a mob hit in progress.
Aren’t bystanders morally supposed to protect women in that situation? I would hope so.
Chivalry is Dead……………..I believe those particular bystanders are more into Shiv-alry, if you know what I mean.
New York PD had a very effective plainclothes unmarked car unit which had a system of regular patrolling of the neighborhoods.
It was credited with deterring crime. The reason is obvious: criminals did not know if the police were watching, but they knew they were in unmarked patrols regularly.
Immediately once the riots began, the incompetent mayor deblasio disbanded the unit.
Crime is up, not surprisingly, because the criminals know the police now have to announce their patrolling presence in uniform
This is a clear result which comes from weak Democrat leadership kowtowing to insane Leftists demands. So…
If you want MORE VIOLENT CRIME, VOTE DEMOCRAT
Someone done called da poliz. That woman weren’t no dog gone thief.
Did anyone see and hear Nadler and his merry band morons yesterday? That whole crew of Dems should submit resignations today, how embarrassing.
Here we go again, Turley: stirring the pot on trivia to divert attention away from the fat slob once again trying to push the faithful to take hydroxychloroquine, because, after all, the orange slob knows more than any doctor about pharmacology, epidemiology and medicine. Just yesterday, he said he “disagreed” with Dr. Fauci’s opinions, as if someone who cheated his way into Wharton is qualified to have any sort of medical opinion. You claim to be a trial lawyer, Turley: tell us, is Trump qualified to offer medical opinion testimony? Would any court anywhere allow him to testify about a medical opinion? And, for good measure, you throw in AOC–that’s sure to rile up the troops. Of course, the big fear is that the faithful will wake up one day and question the wisdom of someone praising a physician who opines that alien DNA, devil sperm and witches cause human illness. Turns out, the white lab coat fake “news conference” was engineered by Breitbart. One day, the disciples might wonder whether the “fake media” could be correct in criticizing the “leadership” of Trump given the fact that the US. has 1/4 if all coronavirus cases, but only 4% of the world’s population. Could it be that he’s not an effective leader, that the rest of the world puts its citizens first, and that we’re doing something wrong? Time to come up with some other trivial incident to keep the faithful riled up. We don’t want them thinking–just believing.
Word. Love Trumper sentiment…., go out and take a pic of demonstrations on your phone, and then rail on about how that’s what it’s going to look like when Biden’s president. Take home point of course being that they’ve come to realize dear leader is a one term president who will be the modern standard bearer for awful leadership and that all this happened on the watch of trumpy bear..
Public Service Announcement: Politicians lie, and especially those with strong allies in the media who will promote those lies as facts.
To say that the use of unmarked cars and officers in plain clothes IS SOMEHOW DIFFERENT than Antifa and other TERRORIST mobs wearing all black and full face/head cover is just plain BULLS*HT.
But to those who want to destroy America by transforming it into AMERIKA, by cancelling our rights to free speech, assembly, to have a different opinion, LAW & ORDER, taking property legally belonging to others, limiting the rule of law to me, but not to thee should be a capital crime punished by capital punishment. Yup, you heard me!
Perhaps if the not very peaceful protestors had not destroyed so many existing NYPD vehicles they would not find it necessary to rent commercial vans to take the place of their regular paddy wagons. From the pictures it is clear that the arrest was made with both undercover and uniformed NYPD. It was what police call “a good pinch.”
Turley is buying into the far right rhetoric that all protestors are “Antifa”. This sort of inaccurate framing is what is used by police for excessive violence. Also, the anonymity that comes with vaguely identified or unidentified officers – sometimes in unmarked cars – who become unaccountable for police misconduct because when they beat up a protestor no one knows who they are or who they are with.
I hope Professor Turley will come to see the error of his ways and abandon the Left. Being a civil libertarian is not incompatible with conservatism but it seems that sobriety and common sense are anathema to progressivism.
Young, please DO NOT insult Iguana’s. 🙂
“Outstripping [] reality” is an excellent, precise description of all things leftist. They have come completely unmoored from reality. They are being kept alive not on food and nutrition, but on pure, unadulterated hatred, venom, and (blood)lust for power.
It is equally frightening, sickening, and abominable to watch, and far transcends merely Bad Orange Man. If not entirely within, it very nearly borders on demonic.
Turley did not say WHY the person was arrested. Most states have laws in place where police and public vehicles and services must be marked. So don’t worry about unmarked paramilitary private contractors dressed in camo that pull you in a truck or van and arrest you, it’s the new normal.
@FishWings:
1) “The NYPD sates that the officers were arresting a suspect in five crimes.” Yep, shame on Mr. Turley for hiding such crucial information.
2) No, they don’t.
3) No, it isn’t.
Very impressive:you managed to be wrong on every single point in your post! That must be a new record for you. I’m sure your proud of yourself for talking like a grown up big person. Now, would you please take your Binkie and lay down for your nappie?
You break the law, you get arrested. That’s actually how it’s supposed to work. Whats more, you seldom get the opportunity to dictate the terms of your arrest. You wanna beat up cameras? That’s your business, It’s also your business when you get busted for it. If Fish, AOC, Mrs. Hayes, et. al want to object, that’s also their own business. Go bail it out and pay for an attorney.
“You break the law, you get arrested” well, and if you’re Trump’s buddy, and you know the rest……..
I’m not sure about the rest. Is it something like “defend Clinton or be Arkancided?”
All of which to say: what a clever attempt to side step having been wrong about every single thing in your OP. Too bad it didn’t work. {sad trombone}
I watched a video of that arrest.
Uniformed cops showed up after the arrest
Did not see anything being thrown at the cops during arrest (not much on a NY street to throw).
Some degree of cops framing the story untruthfully.
Quite amazing how ignorance has taken over a one time good American party, will no one in that party step up and say enough?
You mean this, right?
“The president is pushing the coronavirus theories of a Houston doctor who also says sexual visitations by demons and alien DNA are at the root of Americans’ common health concerns.
A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.
Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made—including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams. …”
All that and she can still out throw that munchkin liar of a man, Fauci.
Oh, you noticed?
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the canidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler
All America needs is a Supreme Court which supports the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution; a judicial branch which does not legislate but assures, simply, that actions comport with literal fundamental law.
If unidentified persons dressed in camouflage carrying weapons try to arrest me for standing on a sidewalk, how do I know they are law enforcement officers if they refuse to identify themselves. Under these conditions, I would be legally justified in using as much force as necessary to repel them. This kind of behavior is being engaged in by apparent federal officers according to later reports, but I can’t know that at the time the incident is happening. These people could just as easily be right-wing militia members or members of hate groups.
And, of course with video snippets, you don’t know that the officers did not identify themselves and tell the person they were under arrest. Even bystanders may not hear everything. It is too easy to make assumptions based upon biases either way.
blogfen – if you are talking about Portland, DHS Director Wolf showed all the uniiforms and patchs and IDs. What they did take off was the name tags because the officers were getting doxxed, but they do have their badge number.
Don’t they need “probable cause?”
Don’t they lose their jobs for malicious behavior in a position of public trust?
Don’t superiors who falsely support a criminal acting under the color of authority, in turn, suffer adjudication?
Don’t you think people know what prevarication is?
The arrested person was a man. Not a female. This tyranny was caught on NYPD video surveillance smashing & disabling NYPD video cameras 4X.
Does the media not realized the mob will come for them if they gain power?
Marxist history.
I think you meant fascist history Jack.
Same thing. Marxism, Fascism and the Nazis all share roots in core socialism and all are authoritarian and violent.
Look up Fascism and Nazis they are not socialist.
Mussolini was a long-time socialist publisher and leader and union man. Fascist was an Italian term for union at the time. The Fascists are socialists on steroids. The Nazi name derives from NSDAP or National SOCIALIST German WORKERS Party. Their name is socialist they said they were socialist in their speeches and literature and they acted like socialists. The Democrats rioting in the streets with Democrat and media approval act very much like Hitler’s Brownshirts or Mao’s Red Guard. Socialist roots, all of them.
I take it that you get your history from The Stormtrooper Magazine.
Leftists like wikipedia. Wikipedia makes it clear Mussolini was an important socialist on his way up. Fascism and Nazism are creatures of socialism.
The meaning of socialist in the contect of the European Continent 100 years ago was, a party organized for the common good of a maximum number of society. That is not quite such a radical proposition, it is the basic premise of democracy in the first place, that laws can be enacted for the common good.
It is fair to say the Nsdap was a socialist party since they called themselves that, and advocated a 23 point plan which involved various economic measures to restrict private financial interests from exploiting the common people and workers. The antisemitism was there all along, but, it operated in a context of criticism of international finance and perceived economic exploitation.
syndicalism is a political theory advanced by pro-union theorists and names people may have heard like Proudon and Sorel, which advocated for ownership and management of the means of production by unions. It became very influential in the formation of fascism in Spain and Italy. I think it’s fair to call it socialist because it envisioned state ownership in practice, with union leadership providing the major management staff for the state owned enterprises.
I think that in America, we have been pragmatic about unions and forms of regulation which seek to curtail the power of finance, Unions are lawful and have provided a lot of stability and positive economic and social contributions, in spite of a lot of their well known excesses and shortcomings. We also have laws like consumer protection, occupational health and safety, that have curtailed private interests for the good of society. Were these “socialist?” Perhaps, to a degree.
One might say that ANTITRUST laws are a form of socialism too. I have heard the argument made.
But now, we should be using ANTITRUST laws to break the visegrip that social media has on public debate and commentary.
I won’t let the phantoms from a century ago stop me from suggesting whatever laws are needed to bring order and justice at this time. If the tools are “socialist” but they work, then bring them to bear.
TRUMP can use them too, and he should. To smash the resistance coming at him from global finance. And for the good of the American law abiding workers and productive elements of society.
Communism goes a measure beyond all other forms of socialism. At this point however, we can see these labels have in many cases, become too plastic to hold anything together, and have lost their usefulness altogether.
Mr K,
It’s late but I seem to keep thinking I’m hearing you say you’re more then willing to give up other American’s Liberties that you don’t own Title to.
I suggest caution when Stealing the neighbor’s horses.
But I have misunderstood writings before?
“One might say that ANTITRUST laws are a form of socialism too. I have heard the argument made.
But now, we should be using ANTITRUST laws to break the visegrip that social media has on public debate and commentary.
I won’t let the phantoms from a century ago stop me from suggesting whatever laws are needed to bring order and justice at this time. If the tools are “socialist” but they work, then bring them to bear. ”
How about Social Media, All Corporations, Chartable Foundations, Vaccine Makers, etc…, been Forced to Operate under the Same Laws/Regs that All Citizens/Myself Are Forced to Operate Under!!!!
Enough with these special treatment money deals for buddies at the expense of Citizen’s Rights.!
It’s late, maybe take 2nd look tomorrow.
The mob’s sole redeeming virtue.
Lincoln came for them with a suspension of Habeas Corpus, sledge hammers and prison cells…the rest of “Crazy Abe’s” brutal “Reign of Terror” is history..in need of urgent repeal and replacement.
AOC would be a good mayor for Portland or Seattle. Stupid as an iguana.
Not fair to iguanas.
Well, some lizard then.
Stop it, yer killin’ me, men!!!
And yet she’ll be your president soon enough and the really smart guy who uses the best words will just be smiling in a dictionary next to the words corrupt idiot.
I suppose that is mean to mean something.