Democratic congressional candidate indicted over ICE protests in the Chicago area

[ificandream]

Source: Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) -- A Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois has been indicted along with five others over blocking vehicles during protests outside a federal immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago, according to court documents. The indictment, filed last week by a special grand jury, accuses Kat Abughazaleh of blocking a federal agent outside the detention center.

"This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment. This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them," Abughazaleh said in a video posted to BlueSky.

"As I and others have exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and tear gassed hundreds of protesters, simply because we had the gall to say that masked men coming into our communities, abducting our neighbors, and terrorizing us cannot be our new normal," she said in the video. As scary as all of this is, I have spent my career fighting America's backslide into fascism," she said. "I'm not gonna stop now, and I hope you won't either."

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/federal-enforcement-candidate-indicted-ice-kat-abughazaleh-b363792dc6e2e3ca40edaa335b787417

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Her video:

[Lovie777]

1. Hopefully dismissed.............

[CanonRay]

2. I've donated to Kat's campaign twice. She is a warrior for democracy

Tough little cookie.

[ancianita]

3. Have you checked out her background? She might be TikTok popular, but does she understand law and governance?

The reality of her lack of govt and political experience seems to reveal her progressive optics as opportunist. Just my opinion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat_Abughazaleh

...At the time of her announcement, Abughazaleh did not live in Illinois's 9th congressional district, having only registered to vote in Illinois's 7th congressional district a month before her announcement.[110][111] House Representatives are legally required to be residents of the state they represent in Congress, but not necessarily of the same district they ran in within that state.[112] Abughazaleh's nonresident status in the district, and relatively short duration as a Chicago resident, has drawn criticism.[16] Local politics commentator Eric Zorn predicted that, even if Schakowsky would choose not to run for re-election, local Democrats will "get behind a more established candidate with better local bona fides and greater experience in government" rather than "a very young candidate easily labeled a carpetbagger".

[CanonRay]

4. When I saw her get hit in the face with a baton

and come back for more, that did it for me. Where's Schakowsky in all this? Nothing against Schakowsky, but we need fighters.

[ancianita]

5. That kind of fighter? Seriously? In case you didn't know, Schakowsky's retiring; it's why Dems are running for her seat

[CanonRay]

7. Yes. That kind of fighter

Look what is happening my friend and it is only getting worse.

[ancianita]

8. That kind of fighter in government would be useless. This is emo drama to get votes.

Govt isn't a slugfest. I lived in IL for over 50 years. IL won't want her.

[CanonRay]

9. Government "wasn't" a slugfest.

Now??????

[ancianita]

10. Not now. Other than youth and online cred, what does she offer IL Democrats of Murkowski's district?

She graduated in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in international affairs, and looked for jobs in progressive politics. So far, no attempt to get a law degree. Instead, she's tended bar and worked as a producer for Media Matters, then got laid off.

Became a TikTok showoff, works for Mother Jones, called Kamala dumb, wrote in The New Republic that "deally, a new party (or several!) would emerge" from the Democratic Party's failure, but "in the interim [...] new blood, motivated by radical change rather than stagnant power, needs to storm [the] ineffective gerontocracy" of the party.

She was registered to vote in the 7th district and didn't even live in the 9th district when she decided to run for Schakowsky's seat. The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune -- not just one op-ed writer -- castigated Abughazaleh, and other Democrats, for using profanity in public statements, admonishing them not to stoop to Trump's level and "debase American politics even further."

In her view, "you have people like Schakowsky who have done a lot more than other people in Congress — but it's still not working" because "the Democratic Party has prioritized decorum and its own structure over actually representing democracy".

News outlets and Abughazaleh herself connected her campaign with the "widespread frustration" with the Democratic Party's leadership among its progressive members, particularly after Donald Trump's rise.[126][127] She also criticized the party for "just continually not listening to voters, not considering any other solutions [...] There's a lot of talk about being a big tent, but it feels like they're only extending that tent to the right, and they're kicking the rest of us out".[66]

Abughazaleh states that she does not intend to be a career politician and is not interested in staying in office indefinitely, should she win.[124] She has said that, to give the next generation a chance to lead, she would want to serve no more than five terms (ten years)...." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat_Abughazaleh
Enough for her to get a pension. Like Bobert.


She's unstable and divisive, not smart enough to be trainable by the AOC contingent. More importantly you're not paying attention to how she also doesn't really support the Democratic Party -- she didn't say "loss," she said "failure" when she said, "a new party (or several!) would emerge" from the Democratic Party's failure -- overall, just a few issues. Sounds like another Fetterman without any of his governing bona fides. Not what IL or Democrats need.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. DoJ repeatedly indict ham sandwiches and repeatedly fail conviction. The indictment is punishment, they think. . . . nt