Artist Shellyne Rodriguez Arrested within the Bronx
Artist and former Hunter Faculty adjunct professor Shellyne Rodriguez, who was fired by the varsity yesterday after a video confirmed her threatening a reporter of the conservative day by day tabloid the New York Put up, was arrested within the Bronx this morning. Previous to the incident, Rodriguez had skilled intense on-line harassment within the wake of a confrontation with an anti-abortion group at Hunter’s Higher Manhattan campus.
On the scene of the arrest exterior the forty third Precinct right this moment, two reporters had been current in addition to a videographer who emerged from a New York Police Division (NYPD) automobile, as witnessed by Hyperallergic. Police erected a barricade on the entrance and the cameraman adopted Rodriguez, who was led right into a police automobile in handcuffs. An NYPD spokesperson stated Rodriguez faces prices of menacing and harassment associated to her altercation with New York Put up reporter Reuven Fenton earlier this week.
On Monday, Fenton confirmed up at Rodriguez’s residence unannounced and allegedly pounded on her door requesting an impromptu interview associated to her change with the pro-life group College students for Lifetime of America at Hunter three weeks in the past. Rodriguez was filmed threatening Fenton with a machete earlier than retreating and shutting the door behind her. Further footage confirmed Rodriguez exterior of the constructing with the knife in her hand. No accidents had been reported.
Within the weeks following Rodriguez’s confrontation with College students for Lifetime of America, Rodriguez acquired “vile and hateful emails, texts, and voicemails.” A few of these messages, reviewed by Hyperallergic, included threats of dying and bodily violence in addition to racial, sexual, and anti-immigrant slurs.
In a press release shared with Hyperallergic yesterday, Rodriguez stated she believed her life was at risk. “All this has taken a toll on my psychological well being, robbing me of my sense of security, and creating affordable worry that they might present up at my residence to trigger me bodily hurt, as has occurred with so many different ladies who’ve equally had their private data uncovered as a type of politically motivated harassment,” Rodriguez stated.
College students for Lifetime of America is an anti-abortion group whose board members embody representatives from a number of right-wing lobbying teams in addition to the Republican Nationwide Committee. On Might 2, Rodriguez approached members of the group who had been tabling on Hunter Faculty’s 68th Road campus. In a video shared by College students for Life, Rodriguez verbally confronted them onsite earlier than disheveling their desk show, which consisted of a field containing rubber fetal fashions and quite a lot of organization-related postcards and different printed supplies. The group shared the footage with campus safety, and Rodriguez was summoned to the Hunter Faculty provost’s workplace on Might 12 for questioning and was requested to apologize to college students for her use of profanity and for disheveling the show, which she complied with.
Rodriguez alleged that the filmed confrontation had been “doctored” by the group earlier than it shared the clip on its social media channels and web site and funneled it to different right-wing retailers comparable to The Faculty Repair. The story was picked up by Fox Information and the New York Put up and went viral virtually instantly, prompting followers to search out Rodriguez’s private contact data and ship her an onslaught of abusive messages and threats throughout each digital avenue. In the previous few days, these and different conservative retailers have characterised Rodriguez as “crazed” and “manic,” centering their reporting on Rodriguez’s position as an activist within the Bronx and zooming in on her tattoo of the FTP Motion. The acronym stands for “Fuck the Police” in addition to “Free the Individuals” and represents an activist-led mobilization in opposition to overpolicing and racist violence.
“As a lot as this incident has stakes for my life, it’s finally only one a part of a broader political wrestle happening throughout the nation,” Rodriguez stated in her assertion yesterday. “Proper-wing media organizations are weaponizing and sensationalizing this case to additional their agenda, and utilizing me as a prism by way of which to undertaking their assaults on ladies, trans folks, Black folks, Latinx folks, migrants, and past.”
NYPD didn’t elaborate additional on the harassment and menacing prices. This can be a growing story and will probably be up to date with extra data because it turns into out there.