One of the men goes for her phone. The other grabs at her hands. Ozturk screams. Shock and fear ripple through her voice. Two masked women join them, tugging at her backpack, peeling the straps from her shoulders. “I’m going somewhere, I need to call someone,” she pleads. “We’re the police. Relax,” one of the men says in response.
They surround her. Then, one by one, they pull their neck gaiters up to cover their faces. “You don’t look like police,” a voice off screen says. “Why are you hiding your faces?” The questions continue, but the figures don’t respond. Instead, they cuff Ozturk, cross the street, and put her in an unmarked SUV. She is gone.
I lived there 10 years ago and it felt entirely different at the time. Chinese people were afraid to discuss certain topics in public, which was not the case in the USA at that time, but yes, times have changed and it is becoming increasingly similar in the US.
Try talking about unionizing at work and see how people react. Americans are terrified of discussing critical issues in places where it matters the most.
Companies having the ability to destroy your life for having the wrong opinion is just as bad as a state doing it.
In the fifties talking about communism was a big bad thing according to Bill Bryson. People talk like the western world in general, and specifically USAmerica is this moral bastion.