Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, an inveterate leftist, was arrested on Friday, May 9, when he was caught trespassing while storming the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, NJ. Now, rather than apologizing for breaking the law and trying to move past the incident, he’s defending it by comparing himself to a Biblical hero.
As background, numerous Democrats insisted that the Delaney Hall facility was operating illegally, and so a gaggle of protesters, including Mayor Baraka and three Democratic members of Congress, stormed the facility while insisting that they were merely doing a scheduled tour of the facility. It was in the ensuing scuffle that one of the members of Congress was caught on camera assaulting federal agents, and during which Mayor Baraka was arrested.
Since then, Mayor Baraka has insisted that he did nothing wrong, defending his decision to trespass during a Tuesday, May 12, rally in Newark. He did so by comparing his arrest for trespassing in a facility meant to help get illegal aliens out of the country to the story of King David in the Bible.
Saying as much, Mayor Baraka told the small crowd of a few dozen supporters, seemingly trying to spark more illegal protests at the controversial facility, “This is our David moment. Many of us miss our David moment because we [are] trying to run away from confrontation and controversy.”
Continuing, he said that not trespassing would be refusing one’s calling to act like King David, saying, “But your crowd lives in the middle of controversy. The thing that has been promised to you is surrounded by high walls, and the gates are guarded by giants. If you’re running from conflict and controversy, then you’ll never get what’s promised of you. This is our David moment.”
More directly comparing himself to David, he then said, “When the congressman came to the gate and was like, ‘Mayor, they said they’re going to arrest you.’ That was a David moment. I could have gotten in the car and ran. I could have said, ‘I’m getting out of here, maybe they’ll arrest me at work or at home or whatever.'”
Continuing with the story, he said that while he froze instead of running away, he told himself that trespassing was what he was called to do, saying, “But I froze. I froze – not even actively or deliberately – my body froze. My body – my body froze, like, ‘This is it, you’re supposed to be here. Whatever they going to do, they going to do it.'”
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He then made light of his arrest, joking that he was speaking to them “as a returning citizen,” as he had been released from jail. Continuing, he then said, “Pardon me, ‘formerly incarcerated.'” He further added, complaining about the consequences of his arrest, “They told me I got to check in, and they ain’t talking about the hood either.”
Still complaining about having to go to court to deal with the consequences of trespassing, he said, “I got to check in, I have to give them all my information, all this stuff, all my family’s information. I mean, I’m making light of it, but it’s real. I got to go to court Thursday. Are these people … serious? They’re really trying to go forward with this and leverage it to make me be quiet.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video