“‘I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,’ Collier said in a statement that called her a ‘political prisoner’ for refusing Republican ‘surveillance protocol.’” www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
What's their crime? Those accused of violent crimes are released with less restrictions
And so it begins…
Why didn’t every democrat refuse to sign?
Support 50501. Join the fight to free Collier from this BS hostage taking by the corrupt $Bribecoin GOP regime. Passionate peaceful protests matter.
We the people must support all who stand up to this GOP BS & all their corrupt tactics. Collier & all these reps deserve our support. It will take ALL OF US! DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT. Be creative. Do what you can. Passionate peaceful protests matter. Ripples matter. ACT! #DCCC #Indivisible
That whole thing is illegal. Just because the Governor makes up some Nazi requirements that a DPS officer be assigned to shadow someone doesn’t make it legal.
Well, the governor IS A NAZI. So there’s hate in his actions…
bsky.app/profile/cj-6...
Is there a fire alarm in that chamber?
Our modern day Rosa Parks. I went to Act blue and donated to her - she’s the kind of leader we need now.
Every democrat in Texas should be there protesting and demanding her release!
Every other Dem rep should be there with her.
Thanks for standing up Rep. Collier. Fight like democracy depends on it, because it does.
Aggravated kidnapping First-degree felony (typically): involving additional elements like ransom demands, using a weapon, causing serious bodily injury, or kidnapping a child. Penalties (first-degree felony): Prison time: 5 to 99 years, or potentially life imprisonment. Fine: Up to $10,000.
And why is she the only Democrat in there?
More importantly, why is she the only Democrat who’s refusing to sign?
Well yeah she’s the only one in there BECAUSE she refused to sign it. WHY is she the only one.
Where are her fellow Dems? WTF
They signed the notes, and accepted the police escorts.
Caved.
I stand with TX Representative Collier!
But Abraham persisted: “Please, do not let my Lord be angry if I speak up this last time. What if ten righteous Republicans are found in Texas?” For the sake of the ten, he replied, I will not destroy it." TexLeg 18:32
Looks like God's gonna do some smiting then.
I didn't know that Lincoln talked to the Lord, but it makes sense. 😇
Want to donate money to her, but I cannot find a site that accepts donations for her campaigns?
I found it directly on actblue secure.actblue.com/donate/nicol...
Thank u!!!
Christ. The Tx Republicans are treating their political opponents worse than accused murderers
bsky.app/profile/ryan...
Yes. Some balls
Can we crowdfund an air mattress and a duvet
How about a security escort out of there?
Not sure if that leads to a standoff
Maybe citizens arrive en masse to escort her out? Make the police arrest all of them. It should be all of her Democratic colleagues, but apparently they wimped out.
#arrestedmobility stark. I can’t believe none of her colleagues stayed.
Some of these comments 😵💫 a simple search would alleviate a lot of confusion
So, the Democrats will have "minders"? How very Russian KGB vibes. How Texans voted in and retained these RW authoritarians is amazing.
It’s win-win for Tx gop, they’ve got her where they want her, stand strong Rep Collier
R's are so myopic that they can't see she is winning and THEY look the fools.
📌
We will be protesting her detainment all day every day until she's released from the house chamber in ATX. If you live in TX this is your moment to STEP THE FUCK UP and show these republican thugs that they don't get to bully us to get what they want. 8:30am - 10pm DAILY ATX CAPITOL BUILDING
Adding some tags for visibility #nokings #50501movement #handsoff
Why isn’t she wearing a gun and standing her ground?
These magats are bringing plantation passes ("permission slips") back, and there is no outrage? WTEF is going on? #howlong #howlongmustthisbullshitgoon #RepNicoleCollier #NicoleCollier #conservativehatredisvicious #injusticeanywhereisathreattojusticeeverywhere
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 The speaker of the house in Texas is Dustin Burrows His official phone number is (512) 463-0542 Call him now and demand the unconditional release of Nicole Collier
Time to sue. There is a law against false imprisonment.
These White pigs in Texas better hope a militia of Texas citizens don't come looking for them.
Why this is not ‘’BREAKING NEWS’’ to shine a spotlight on the thuggery, toxicity, and lawlessness of Republicans⁉️. WTAF this pure BS!
This is fascism. Where are the other democrats? They are holding a woman of color hostage.
She's my rep, and I'm so proud. The rest of the Dem delegation can fuck right off, though. Where are they?!
Guess the rest of them had no will to fight
Meanwhile: @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and other Dem leaders send emails about…signing petitions and sending $5.
💯
I will die shaking my head knowing that a significant percentage of white voters willingly chose racism and self-immolation over common sense and respect for the republic. It is, as they say, one goddamn bitter pill to swallow.
Texas is now Yeehaw Gilead
She should be every Democrat. The ones who don't resist are cowards.
We've reached the point where they are collaborators
Wrongful imprisonment.
If I follow the article logic, there must be an arrest warrant issued. Why? The article does not seem to explain this? “that the Democrats who had arrest warrants issued against them”
I think it’s referring to the civil warrants that were issued when Dems left TX to prevent a quorum.
Let's send pizzas, Grubhub and Uber eats to her.
She routinely wins her (very diverse) state district by 50 points. She should go ahead and announce she's running for Governor or something while she's being kidnapped. Go for broke.
Tomorrow every Texas legislator must refuse to sign. This isn't only unlawful detainment. It is shameful. But this is the Republican party of today. If they cannot abide state laws or the Constitution, they must pay the price of abandoning democracy and be voted out in every state.
More power to her!
The phrase 'Lone Star' comes to mind
I am glad that she is taking a stand but the rest of the House Dems should have done the same thing.
Whoever “law enforcement” is should be ashamed. Is this what they imagined for their career? Harassing duly elected American legislators? Shame on them for playing along. I’d rather be a mall cop any day than facilitate this unAmerican authoritarian garbage. Cowards, fools & traitors. All of them.
This is the equivalent of white slavemaster’s having locked the black lady up b/c she won’t bow down to them. Is that about right? The TX House are a bunch of pathetic WEI (white entitled & incompetent GOP men). They might as well be wearing their white sheets @texastribune.org @realtexaspaul.com
They previously referred to the Dems that left the state as "runaways" and dispatched 21st century slave catchers aka the FBI to find them. Yes, these people are openly racist and would love to crush BIPOC under their boot like the bad old days, and many white people are cool with that.
@fallonturing.bsky.social this is what I was talking about. Republicans are using the police as a way to control and forcibly escort Dems wherever they want to do whatever Republicans want to end Democrats blocking of Republican policy. It is pretty much kidnapping and holding officials hostage.
So what are they going to do if she just goes about her American right to free movement? Arrest her? She still has rights!
The doors are locked. She can’t get out.
The doors aren't locked. She can't leave Capitol grounds. She can go to her office and the bathroom etc. But they did tell her they'd arrest her if she left the Capitol.
How is any of this legal?!?
Free NICOLE
I just gave the Texas State Capital 1 star on Google Maps and this review: SHAME on them for illegally restraining Rep. Nicole Collier! FASCISTS! NAZIS! I hope she sues the faces off you! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
This Republican fuckery screams “violation of constitutional rights” at possibly a deafening volume. What the SUM TOTAL OF ALL FUCKS is our country DOING with this shit??
The wording is fucking insane. Essentially what has happened us they are putting duly elected Democrats under house arrest to force them to attend and you say refused to leave? Wtaf
Republicans have turned Texas into a fascist police state where opposition elected representatives are “under arrest” for not doing the bidding of the white minority? #ApartheidAliveInTexas
She should piss on her colleagues desk while she’s being held hostage
Ew. Also yes. But ew.
And their chairs.
In some other places, at some other time, a million people would have stormed the Bastille by now. Not doing is also still complicity. You layed the foundations by storming the Bastille once, figurately speaking. No reason whatsoever *not* to repaet storming it again. All same easons to repeat.
Aggravated kidnapping First-degree felony (typically): involving additional elements like ransom demands, using a weapon, causing serious bodily injury, or kidnapping a child. Penalties (first-degree felony): Prison time: 5 to 99 years, or potentially life imprisonment. Fine: Up to $10,000.
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO
Get Democrats tae fuck. Useless top tae bottom.
Habeus corpus?
Where is the black race sitting cowardly to allow their very best Collier suffer the injustice? fuck you, all cowardly men out there. I shall give my support to any armed group out there to fight legally or illegally against the damm fuck going on.
Republicans are not superior!!!!!!!!
This is so wrong what they are doing
This is just so wrong what they are doing!
Maybe some of her constituents can show up to support her? This is kidnapping, some modern form of the Fugitive Slave Act. I hope she sues.
And gawddammit. The first article I saw about this had a white woman slumped in what looked like a legislative chamber. Don't steal this woman's valor. Thanks for posting this!
These Texas MAGAt clowns are trying to play the school bully and will fail miserably.
This is seriously scary
Texas, where the police will watch children get shot, adults and children drown, people get kidnapped off the streets, and now kidnap/arrest law abiding citizens for no reason at all.
I wanna know why the fuck every single other Democrat is not in that chamber with her. Why is she having to do this alone?
If I was there, I'd be right outside demanding they let her go. Hopefully others will show up. Where are her colleagues?
She doesn't need anyone to demand to let her go, she can sign the paper and leave with monitoring like everyone else if she wanted to. I give her a lot of respect for choosing not to do that.
Yes! "I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,"
I would guess they agreed to leave with the monitoring because they were just away from their families and jobs for two weeks getting fined $500/day and wanted to get back to those things.
Tell that to members of the Texas National Guard who got deployed overseas for months.
Well, SHAME on them!
That's easy for you to say from your couch. Nothing would change if they stayed, other than bringing more attention to the matter by their protest, which is good, but they've already been through a lot and the protesting is something the rest of us could do for them. We owe them.
Yes, it is. But it's not like I've never done anything difficult or uncomfortable while doing my job and upholding my ethics! This is the job they signed up for! They are representing the citizens of their state! How dare they abandon a fellow crime-fighter for ANY reason!
Weak. They work for the people, not the other way around. Stop making excuses for politicians failing do to the right thing.
Many of our leaders have not stepped up to the plate, but these people have. They left the state under threat and with fines, they coordinated with national leaders, and they developed a plan to go back once Newsom put his maps out as Abott made clear he was going to keep calling special sessions.
By doing so, they brought the needed national attention to the issue, helped light the fire and public support for Dems fighting back with their own maps, and again, gave time for Newsom to put out his maps. In the scheme of things the additional protest by them to spend the night during the...
would not add much to what they've already done. And would not do anymore than what the public could do by protesting. We could not have left the state to postpone the vote and call national attention tot he issue the way they did, but we can all go protest and make phone calls.
If you are waiting for the leaders to do all the work and think we don't have to do anything, we will not save democracy. We need to support them and ourselves. Again, yes, many have not risen to the occasion, but these people have.
If true, lame. And cowardly. Fighting fascism is gonna cost a bit, they should resign if they aren't up to the task.
Are you out protesting right now?
There’s certainly things only our elected leaders can do and we need them to step up and do it. But every single American can protest this situation.
They're pulling a Star Wars maneuver. They are holding her hostage hoping the other Democrats will feel bad & come back to the house to support her
They complied in advance. It's what liberals do
Right?!
She’s the only one with the balls.
They're breaking quorum, IIRC.
No they decided to capitulate, including her.
no they came back
correction sorry - *some* came back not all
Why is this not kidnapping??
Here you go again with pesky facts and logic...
It’s an arrest. In any other state, it would false arrest, but who can tell in Texas.
I would have thought it’s false imprisonment, but whatever it is, it’s wrong and sure seems illegal.
Because it's in Texas and they don't give a shit about laws there.
How is this remotely legal?
I wonder if this is what Roberts had in mind when he decided that partisan gerrymandering was exactly what the founders had in mind. Y’all know they won’t stop. Gerrymandering will occur with every election until our democracy is dead!
All the Dems should return to the chamber. With food & water Then block the doors to keep the Wednesday session from happening at all Fighting fire with fire
I'm gonna bet that a non-violent occupation will be responded to by the Republicans by fighting fire with bullets
well that might precipitate something
This is scary!
In the next cycle Congressional Rs will walk out to deny quorum on a vote for Medicaid or Green Energy or SNAP and will immediately make the false equivalency to the TX Legislature.
F A S C I S M
Why didn’t all the other Dems refuse to sign the stupid paper?! Now they look even weaker! Ugh! This one Black woman is standing up all by herself. Typical & sad! I only trust the 92%!
My question too.
New maga slogan: "tread on me"
Its too bad the old mythical Texas gunslinging hero is just that, a myth. Far from independent free thinking seekers of Justice, Texas' leaders have shown themselves to be subservient, unthinking fools. Sam Austin would be ashamed.
Sure let’s hold a Black woman hostage. That’s play well 😡
So crazy. We need more like her. You need to fight this nonsense with fire. She should drag them into court for this.
So many of women of color have more courage then 99% of ReTrumplicans
It's time America gets rid of Texas. Build the wall along the northern border, not the southern
How is this not a clear violation of her civil rights?
Gotta give her credit! I wish her luck. Where are those other dems? And I’ve decided Abbot is just an awful if not more! He’s one angry guy! I don’t think he’s ever come to grips with being in a wheel chair so he lashes out on the ones that shouldn’t be lashed out at.
Why is Rep Collier the ONLY returning Dem standing up to these tyrannical bullies? They should all continue to stand together against this unlawful detention. Beat them at their own game. @genewu.bsky.social
Call the police
I’m genuinely not sure, so I’m asking for clarification. Was this meant sarcastically? It’s the cops that are keeping her there. At the behest of Texas law authorities. It’s cops who are guarding her, and who told her that she is not free to leave, unless she agrees to police escorts.
Ok. I thought it was republicans forcing the doors shut. How could the cops possibly go along with this?
Historically, that becomes the question every time a society is transitioning into tyranny/authoritarianism/fascism. The overly simplified answer lives somewhere between people being afraid of losing their jobs and their security, and people having bought into the propaganda of division.
It’s part of the reason why the, “I was just following orders“ defence that was used time and again during the Nuremberg trials was found to be without legal basis. However, in a time where the already biased systems and protections that were place are being dismantled,
… some people comply out of fear, some people comply because it allows them to publicly embrace perspectives and beliefs they have held, but have not been able to express without public censure, and some people comply because they believe that they have limited capacity to act/influence.
If you are familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment, an experiment that would not have been cleared to proceed in recent years, it is eerie how what we are seeing replicates not only historical patterns of this point in the collapse of empires, but also the outcomes of the SPE itself.
In Texas? 💀☠️
