By Jack Brook and Sarah Raza
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota activist who was charged for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a church released her own video of her arrest Jan. 23 after the White House posted a manipulated image online.
The White House on Jan. 22 posted a picture on its X page of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong crying with her hands behind her back as she was escorted by a blurred person wearing a badge. The photo was captioned in all caps: “Arrested far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.”
A photo posted by Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem’s account showed the same image with Levy Armstrong wearing a neutral expression.
Levy Armstrong, who was arrested with at least two others Jan. 22 for an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a church where an ICE official also serves as a pastor, released her own video. Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, a St. Paul school board member who was also arrested in connection to the protest, were both released Jan. 23, according to a post by Levy Armstrong’s organization, the Racial Justice Network. Their attorneys declined to comment.
The video shot by Levy Armstrong’s husband, Marques Armstrong, shows several federal agents approaching to arrest her.
“I’m asking you to please treat me with dignity and respect,” she said to the agents.
“We have to put you in handcuffs,” one agent said, while another held up a phone and appeared to record a video.
“Why are you recording?” Levy Armstrong asked. “I would ask that you not record.”
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent filming said. “It’s not going to be on anything like that.”
“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent said.
At no point in the more than seven-minute video – which shows Levy Armstrong being handcuffed and led into a government vehicle – did Levy Armstrong appear to cry. Instead, she talked with agents about her arrest.
“You know that this is a significant abuse of power,” she said. “Because I refuse to be silent in the face of brutality from ICE.”
“I’m not in here to get in a political debate,” the agent filming said.
In an audio message that Levy Armstrong’s spokesperson shared with The Associated Press, Levy Armstrong said the video of her arrest exposes that the Trump administration had used AI to manipulate images of her arrest.
“We are being politically persecuted for speaking out against authoritarianism, fascism and the tyranny of the Trump administration,” said Levy Armstrong, who recorded the message the morning of Jan. 23 during a call with her husband from jail.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t 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.