I highly recommend watching this testimony from Aliya Rahman, the disabled woman who was dragged out of her car and kidnapped by ICE on her way to a doctor appointment in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.
Truly my worst nightmare.
Transcript of Aliya Rahman's speech:
Thank you members, for taking the time to be here today, and thank you staff for making this happen.
My name is Aliya Rahman, and I am a resident of South Minneapolis. I am a Bangladeshi American born in Northern Wisconsin. And I’m a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury.
Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns. And while what the world saw happen to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple center.
So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home, and I offer this data because these practices must end now.
On January 13th on the way to my 39th appointment at Hennepin County’s traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it. I had not wanted to pull in to a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, “Move! I will break your f-ing window!”
His first instruction.
Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians.
Then, the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face.
I yelled, “I’m disabled!” at the hands grabbing at me and an agent said, “Too late.”
I felt immersed in a pattern, and I thought of Jenoah Donald, an autistic black man killed by the police during a traffic stop in 2021.
I remembered mister Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year.
An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt. Shooting pain went through my head, neck, and wrists when I hit the ground face first and people leaned on my back.
I felt the pattern, and I thought of mister George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away.
I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally.
I was never asked for ID.
Never told I was under arrest.
Never read my rights.
And never charged with a crime.
Approaching the Whipple center, I saw black and brown bodies shackled together, chained together, being marched by yelling agents outdoors. I continued to hear the word “bodies”, because that is how agents referred to us:
“We’re bringing in a body.”
“They’re bringing in bodies 7, 8 at a time, where do I put ‘em?”
“We can’t use that room, there’s already a body in there.”
You have no reason to believe you will make it out alive if you’re already being called a body.
Agents repeatedly had to stop and ask how to do tasks. I received no medical screening, phone call, or access to a lawyer. I was denied a communication navigator when my speech began to slur. Agents laughed as I tried to immobilize my own neck. I asked for my cane and was told no, pulled up by my arms and prodded forward in leg irons by agents laughing and saying, “Walk! You can do it, walk.”
Agents did not know if the facility had a wheelchair.
When I was finally placed in one to be taken to interrogation an agent taunted, “You were driving, right? So your legs do work.”
I pleaded for emergency medical care for over an hour after my vision had become blurry, my heart rate went through the roof, and the pain in my neck and head became unbearable.
It was denied.
When I became unable to speak my cellmate pleaded for me.
The last sounds I remember before I blacked out on the cell floor were my cellmate banging on the door, pleading for a medic, and a voice outside saying, “We don’t wanna step on ICE’s toes.”
When I opened my eyes at Hennepin County’s emergency room, I learned I was brought there to be treated for assault.
The impacts of DHS detention on my physical, mental and financial well-being and safety have been very severe, but I do not deserve more humane treatment than anyone else, US citizen or not. And I am here today with a strong spirit and a duty to the many people who haven’t had the privilege to tell their stories or see their loved ones come home. I am extremely distressed by the pattern that violence from law enforcement has been happening to black and indigenous communities for centuries, and to DHS survivors for over 20 years.
We call ourselves a civilized nation, but we lack rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement is permitted to do to another human being.
I am not afraid, and I’m not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone. Thank you for your time.
the best way to protect your health and well-being in 2025, amidst a pandemic that is severe but now ignored (not to mention a bird flu pandemic is brewing with an estimated 50% mortality rate if it mutates toward human to human transmission), is to wear a kn94, or even better, an n95 mask in your day to day life, as often as possible. sometimes is better than never. it's truly my top health tip.
i followed the research from the beginning, as i watched what happened to me happen to people en masse (the chance of postviral illness from each covid infection is somewhere between 10 and 30%. every time you get sick you're rolling the dice on lifelong disability).
because of learning this early, i never took my mask off. i have not had as much as a cold since 2019. cannot recommend it enough. it's wonderful to not get sick and it's wonderful to not pass it on to others. i will gladly wear a mask in shared spaces as long as I need to. it helps prevent organ damage, brain damage, increased likelihood of heart attack and stroke, and also helps prevent damage to my immune system that covid can cause.
wearing a mask should not be a badge of shame. wearing a mask is an affirmation that our lives, all our lives, are precious and we all deserve to be protected from harm. please consider a mask. your life matters and the damage covid causes is so severe people are making comparisons to HIV/AIDS. i know the messaging isn't telling you this, but the research is, I can assure you. covid causes what is called t8 cell apoptosis. your t cells are a vital part of your immune system, and covid has been shown to cause the death of these cells.
your life is so precious. my life is so precious. please consider masking up.
They have a sale on RN too!
use coupon code BFM15 for a 15% discount
morimyth.exe is loading...
Thawing circuits...
[ID: A woman, Aisling, is pictured in black and white, in a close up shot surrounded by snow, rendered to look like tv static. They are looking up and to the left as bindrune snowflakes fall around them in teal, purple, and black. The Morimyth logo can be seen in the bottom right.]
Edits by @nikkiareese
worked in the service industry from I was 19 to 25 I need to say #1 advice to younger people is if you’re in pain at work on a regular basis, even if it’s mild, take that shit seriously early bc I can’t tell you how many people end up needing knee surgery or get chronic tendonitis or back pain in their 20s and 30s because they just pushed through the pain. genuinely disturbing how encouraged it is to overwork yourself in that industry to be a hard worker, and how normalized and common it is for the workers to be in pain all the time. It’s not normal to be in pain every day. even if half your coworkers are also in pain it is not normal, and it’s not a bad work ethic or weak to take care of your health just because it seems like everyone else can handle it.
- person who pushed through it and got hand tendonitis and daily knee pain in their mid twenties and had to quit
Your boss will act like actively hurting yourself and sacrificing your health for your job makes you a good worker and a team player when actually it just makes you injured and sometimes disabled
dashboard lately:
"hey have we considered that reifying and performatively rebuking essentialized categories of Villainous People are not very productive re: preventing real harm?"
"wow, you sound like a Villainous Person, you fucking degenerate. i am very progressive."
y'all need to relearn the word erratic and stop using schizophrenic/bipolar/psychotic as a replacement
y'all need to relearn the word particular and stop using ocd as a replacement
People need to relearn the word "egocentric" and stop using narcissist/narc as a replacement.
People need to relearn the word "impulse" and stop using "intrusive thought" as a replacement
THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING TO GET YOUR MEDS BEFORE THE PHARMACIES CLOSE
they are going to be CLOSED OVER THE HOLIDAYS and so will the DOCTORS WHO SIGN YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS.
if you don’t have enough meds to last the next THREE WEEKS, put in for your repeats and refills tomorrow! that’s Wednesday! do it! don’t go to hospital at New Year because you ran out of stuff!
it’s that time of year again! get your meds!
