Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School and an official in former President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, called for truck drivers protesting Canada’s COVID-19 policies to be arrested on Thursday.
“Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks,” Kayyem said Thursday morning.
“Trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt: cancel their insurance; suspend their drivers licenses; prohibit any future regulatory certification for truckers, etc.” she said. “Have we learned nothing? These things fester when there are no consequences.”
“Earlier today, I tweeted something that has been used by others to suggest I was promoting vigilantism,” Kayyem said late Thursday. “I was not. People have the freedom to protest. Governments have the responsibility to protect public safety. That was what I intended to say.”
When Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called for an “overwhelming display of force” to dispel violent riots during the summer of 2020, Kayyem accused him of gunning for a job as Defense Secretary and said his statement was “ambition masked as a tweet.”
She also called former President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy the military to dispel protests in June 2020 “ahistorical” and “dangerous,” and she said “when Trump defenders invoke military use in LA Riots, it exposes how little they know about #homelandsecurity.”
The trucker convoy protests in Canada began in late January and have steadily grown, blocking major transportation routes, including the Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada to Detroit.
Kayyem did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Read the latest school and education headlines
- NJ lawmaker claims billions spent on educating undocumented immigrants amid school cuts and closures
- New Jersey Congressional Comm Director Goes on Full Anti-MAGA Conspiracy Tirade to Defend Failed School Funding Policies
- Federal judge awards $25K in IDEA case against NYC Department of Education
- New Jersey middle school teacher charged with sexual assault of minor
- New Jersey special education teacher was high in class and arrested for child neglect
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read the full story at the Daily Caller News Foundation