MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota activist charged in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a church posted a video of his own arrest Friday after the White House posted a manipulated image online.
On Thursday, the White House posted a photo on Page X of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong crying with her hands behind her back, flanked by an escort of a blurry person wearing a badge. The photo was captioned in all caps: “Far-left provocateur Nekima Levy Armstrong arrested for plotting Minnesota church riot.”
A photo posted on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s account shows the same photo of Levy Armstrong with a neutral expression.
Levy Armstrong, who was arrested along with at least two others Thursday over an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest that disrupted services at a church where an ICE officer also serves as pastor, posted a video of herself. Levi Armstrong and St. Paul school board member Chauntyll Allen, both arrested in connection with the protests, were both released on Friday, according to a post from Levi Armstrong’s organization, the Racial Justice Network. Their lawyers declined to comment.
Video shot by Max Armstrong, Levi Armstrong’s husband, shows several federal agents approaching to arrest her.
“I ask that you treat me with dignity and respect,” she told the agents.
“We have to put handcuffs on you,” one agent said, while another held up his phone and appeared to record video.
“Why are you recording?” Levi Armstrong asked. “I’m asking you not to record.”
“This is not going to be on Twitter,” said the agent who shot the video. “It doesn’t happen with anything like that.”
“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent said.
In the more than seven-minute video, which shows Levi Armstrong being handcuffed and being led into a government vehicle, he doesn’t appear to cry. Instead, she spoke with agents about her arrest.
“You know this is a serious abuse of power,” she said. “Because I refuse to remain silent in the face of ICE’s brutality.”
“I’m not here to engage in a political debate,” the agent filmed said.
In an audio message shared with The Associated Press by her spokesperson, Armstrong said video of her arrest exposed the Trump administration’s use of artificial intelligence to manipulate images of her arrest.
“We are being persecuted for speaking out against authoritarianism, fascism and the tyranny of the Trump administration,” said Levi Armstrong, who recorded the message during a phone call with her husband from jail Friday morning.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Associated Press reporters Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis and Tiffany Stanley in Washington, D.C., contributed.
