TUESDAY: Mayor Baraka freed from chains!

TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2025

Rep. McIver charged: As it turns out, it looks like Mayor Baraka may not have "trespassed" at all.

We refer to the events which transpired at Newark's Delaney Hall Detention Center back on Friday, May 9. All in all, no clear account of what took place has yet emerged. 

As you may recall, here' how the events were described by the spokesperson for Homeland Security on that very day:

Members of Congress Break into Delaney Hall Detention Center

Delaney Hall Currently Holds Murderers, Rapists, Suspected Terrorists, and Gang Members

NEWARK, NJ –Today, as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center, a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility. Representatives Robert Menendez, Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman and multiple protestors are holed up in a guard shack, the first security check point. 

“Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility. This is an evolving situation,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. 

For the record, that's the way a press release looks when things are falling apart.

Did two [sic] members of Congress actually "storm the gate and break into the detention facility?" At some point, were the pair really "holed up in a guard shack, the first security check point?" 

By now, all such claims are gone, long gone. Except on the Fox News Channel, so is the remarkable statement McLaughlin made to CNN on Saturday morning, May 10:

DHS spokesperson threatens arrests of House Democrats who were at N.J. ICE facility

[...]

“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer,” McLaughlin said.

Some of the members of Congress had even been captured on tape "body-slamming a female ICE officer! Given the chance to sleep on her claims, that's what McLaughlin now said.

This very morning, news reader Madeline Rivera was still citing that non-existent "body slam" on Fox & Friends. Rivera was attempting or pretending to describe the conduct of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who has now been charged with assault.

"DHS says video shows her shoving and body slamming an officer. You can see her there in the red." So said Rivera, who doesn't normally say things like that. 

On the video which was playing, you could indeed see Rep. McIver wearing red. But you could see no one being "body slammed," and that implausible claim seems to have disappeared from all other parts of the world.

That said, it has now been announced that Mayor Baraka will not be charged with trespassing. That suggests the possibility that he never trespassed at all.

Rep. McIver has been charged with assault, apparently for allegedly "shoving" an officer. Videotape remains quite sketchy—but what actually happened that day?

What actually happened? You can't find out from the report which appeared in today's New York Times. The basic chronology is thoroughly jumbled. For example, riddle us this:

Rep. McIver Charged With Assault Over Clash Outside Newark ICE Center

[...]

Ms. McIver and the two other lawmakers—Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez—have pushed back against the Trump administration’s contention that the legislators stormed into the detention center. The federal government’s narrative has also been contradicted by video footage and by witnesses who were at the scene.

The lawmakers visited the detention center on May 9 to conduct an oversight visit. They said that they were allowed inside to tour the 1,000-bed facility, which opened this month amid resistance from local officials who are opposed to President Trump’s deportation efforts.

Ms. McIver and the other lawmakers, as well as the mayor’s supporters, formed a physical circle around Mr. Baraka, video shows, leading to jostling and a confusing scrum that the Trump administration has sought to cast as a violent mob attack on federal officers. Federal officials arrested Mr. Baraka and charged him with trespassing, a misdemeanor; Mr. Baraka had said he was being selectively prosecuted.

Say what? Let's run through that again:

The three lawmakers said that they were allowed inside to tour the 1,000-bed facility. Ms. McIver and the other lawmakers, as well as the mayor’s supporters, formed a physical circle around Mr. Baraka.

Is that a news report, or is it perhaps a dream sequence? It almost seems that several paragraphs are missing from that chronology.

First, the lawmakers are allowed inside the facility—then they're forming a circle around the mayor? Where was this second bit of conduct occurring? How did the three lawmakers come into contact with the mayor? Why were they forming that circle?

In that passage, the Times describes an indecipherable chain of events. This is the sort of thing that happens when a society is falling apart.

Briefly, let's review:

Initially, McLaughlin said the three lawmakers stormed the gates and broke into the facility. Oddly, none of the three have been charged for any such offense.

That may be because no such behavior ever occurred. Except on the Fox News Channel, that "body slam" has also disappeared.

(Were they ever "holed up in a guard shack?" We'd be willing to take a guess.)

That said, on May 9, 10 and 11, the three members appeared on a series of cable news shows to describe what did occur. On May 9, Rep. Menendez appeared on Deadline: White House. You can see the videotape of his appearance by clicking here.

As you'll see, Rep. Menendez told Nicole Wallace that, at the start of the day's events, the three congressional reps had been allowed inside the facility. They had then been left sitting in a room, alone, for something like an hour and a half. 

According to Menendez, they began to feel that they were being stonewalled. According to Menendez, it was only after that initial chunk of time that the other events occurred.

Two days later, on CNN's State of the Union, this exchange occurred:

BASH (5/11/25): Congresswoman Watson Coleman, just to be clear, the tour came after that confrontation?

REP. WATSON COLEMAN: The tour came after the confrontation, even though we were there almost two hours before the confrontation took place. But ICE kept giving us the run-around and kept saying that they needed to talk to someone else.

According to the members' account. they got the run-around for almost two hours, then the confrontation occurred. After the confrontation—even after the body slam!—they were then invited back into the building and, a bit like Gilligan himself, were finally given a tour.

What actually happened on that day? If you watch Fox & Friends, that body slam on a female officer is still part of the tribal fun. If you read the New York Times, you still have no idea.

As for Mclaughlin, her initial statements seem to have come from the land of Crackpot and Crazy. but also from La-La Land. These are the sorts of reports the public receives when things are rapidly falling apart and journalists are refusing to notice.

President Trump has been revisiting the Clintons' many murders. McLaughlin is speaking the language of body slams.

It's hard to decipher the New York Times, but very few readers will notice. As a matter of pure anthropology, we humans aren't built for this type of work, and we never were.