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Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Jewish Journalist Arrested for Objecting to Islamic Terror Symbol in Grocery Store Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2025 19:49:25 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 221 Message-ID: <vqcu84$33k3l$3@dont-email.me> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=fixed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:49:25 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="ecfc703fd2c8c683217f9185a9c23b91"; logging-data="3264629"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19CARHWbcYO+xvR5TZKRB86" User-Agent: Usenapp/0.92.2/l for MacOS Cancel-Lock: sha1:OqDzQvlEShZcpV1yLbw41wbxV1Q= https://rairfoundation.com/jewish-journalist-sloan-rachmuth-arrested-objecting-islamic-terror/ Sloan Rachmuth, a Jewish journalist and political commentator, was arrested at her home in front of her terrified children on November 3, 2024. Her alleged crime? According to Rachmuth, she objected to a supermarket employee at Harris Teeter wearing the controversial keffiyeh, a political symbol widely associated with Hamas and its ambitions to destroy Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. Rachmuth, an outspoken advocate against antisemitism and a contributor to national media outlets on Middle Eastern affairs, explained to RAIR Foundation in an exclusive interview that she was handcuffed, marched through her neighborhood, and charged with cyberstalking after she posted about the troubling incident online. Rachmuth explained the police never asked for her side of the story, nor investigated the credibility of the alleged victim. Her arrest was based solely on an unverified accusation, raising serious concerns about law enforcement's complicity in this apparent retaliation. Rather than uphold its corporate attire and political expression policies, Harris Teeter-- a subsidiary of The Kroger Co., the largest supermarket chain in America-- ignored its regulations. Indeed, Harris Teeter allowed an employee to wear a threatening symbol of Islamic and Palestinian terrorism, visibly wrapping it around her head while working with customers. Rachmuth describes this as not just corporate censorship or police overreach but state-backed antisemitic persecution and the criminalization of those who publicly object to terror support and antisemitism. On October 31, 2024, Rachmuth entered Harris Teeter on Sunset Lake Road in Holly Springs, NC, a store where she had shopped regularly for seven years. According to Rachmuth, as she checked out, she noticed an employee handling food while wearing a keffiyeh-- a garment long associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and frequently worn by Hamas militants and supporters. In America, the keffiyeh has been used as a rallying icon for violence against Jews during demonstrations. Even countries like the United Arab Emirates and Egypt-- both Arab nations-- have banned its political use, recognizing its ties to Islamic terror groups. Aware of its political significance, Rachmuth says she politely asked the employee, Amira M. Fattah, "It's Halloween; are you wearing this as a costume?" Fattah replied, "No, it's for Free Palestine," confirming she wore the keffiyeh as a political statement rather than for religious reasons. As a Jewish woman and a longtime customer, Rachmuth was deeply uncomfortable with a store employee openly supporting an ideology that symbolized the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people while handling food. While at the store, Rachmuth escalated her concerns to store manager Sheronna Irick, expecting Harris Teeter to uphold its policies against political speech in the workplace. Instead of addressing the hostile work environment created by an employee wearing a symbol of Jewish oppression, Irick dismissed Rachmuth's complaint outright and told her, "Like it or leave." Realizing that the store manager was indifferent to the issue, Rachmuth contacted Harris Teeter's corporate office to inform them of what had occurred. Frustrated by the store manager's hostile response, Rachmuth turned to social media and posted about the encounter on X (formerly Twitter). She included a photo of the employee wearing the keffiyeh--showing only the employee's profile-- along with a caption questioning the corporation's stance on political speech in the workplace. The post quickly gained traction, sparking widespread debate about corporate complicity in antisemitism. Rather than address the concern, Harris Teeter's employees escalated the situation by calling the police in what appears to be an act of retaliation against a customer. According to arrest records and law enforcement, store manager Sheronna Irick played a pivotal role in facilitating this retaliation and made it clear that the Harris Teeter manager's actions directly enabled Rachmuth's falsely-charged arrest. Three days after Rachmuth's X post, Holly Springs Police officers-- Elliott Warren, Benjamin Marino, and Edgar Hernandez-- arrived at Rachmuth's home and began pounding on her door. To understand how this politically motivated arrest unfolded, examining events leading up to it is important. A Timeline of the Political Arrest October 31, 2024: Rachmuth reports that she noticed a Harris Teeter employee wearing a keffiyeh, questioned her about it, and later posted images on social media. November 2, 2024: Holly Springs Police took a report from the employee and store manager, who alleged that Rachmuth called her a terrorist in the store-- an accusation Rachmuth vehemently denies. The incident report officially labeled the case as ANTI-ISLAMIC (MUSLIM), suggesting that law enforcement intentionally framed the situation as a bias-motivated offense. This classification raises serious concerns about whether police exaggerated or misrepresented the nature of the allegations to justify Rachmuth's arrest. If Rachmuth's concern over a political symbol was rebranded as a 'hate crime', does this mean that simply objecting to Hamas-affiliated imagery is now considered a criminal act? The implications of such a designation are chilling-- especially given that there was no investigation into whether the allegations against her were truthful. November 3, 2024: Officer Elliott Warren obtained an arrest warrant, accusing Rachmuth of using her cellphone to "harass, embarrass, or terrify" the employee. Later that day: Police arrived at her home with an arrest warrant in hand, leading to what many believe was an effort to humiliate her publicly. Rachmuth, a mother of two, says she was shocked and confused by the officers' presence. When she demanded the reason for her arrest, Officer Benjamin Marino chillingly replied, "Something you did made her uncomfortable, all right?" Rachmuth's arrest video shows she was then handcuffed with no questions asked. She says the police paraded her through her neighborhood before taking her to Wake County Jail. Adding to the cruelty of the arrest, this occurred on her 17th wedding anniversary, as her terrified children, concerned husband and protective German Shepherd watched helplessly. Rachmuth states that despite the alleged crime being an unarrestable misdemeanor, she was forced to pay a $1,000 cash bail-- a sum typically reserved for serious offenses-- and was treated like a violent criminal during the booking process. Democratic activists and their media swiftly circulated her mugshot and charge sheet online, weaponizing the arrest as a political smear campaign. Major left-wing outlets, including The Independent, The Intercept, MSN, Daily Mail, and other partisan publications, immediately jumped on the bandwagon, launching coordinated attacks against Rachmuth. They spread her mugshot far and wide, framing her as a villain-- without even attempting to reach out to her for comment. This rapid media blitz has left many questioning who contacted the media so swiftly and how they were able to mobilize coverage within hours of her arrest. Just as questions linger over who at Harris Teeter initially called the police, suspicions are growing that this was not an organic reaction but rather a carefully coordinated effort to weaponize the criminal justice system against a Jewish journalist. Many believe this was a deliberate, politically motivated attack meant to silence and intimidate her-- setting a dangerous precedent for anyone daring to expose antisemitism or radical extremism in America. The charge against Rachmuth-- cyberstalking-- has no legal precedent or justification. The accusation alleged that she used her phone to take a photo with the intent to embarrass someone-- an assertion unsupported by any state or federal law and one that raises serious 1st Amendment concerns. Even Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, a Democrat, acknowledged the blatant injustice of the case and dropped all charges the next day, stating that the alleged conduct did not even come close to meeting the elements of the offense. However, this charge's legal overreach and selective enforcement remain deeply troubling. North Carolina's cyberstalking statute, G.S. 14-196.3, requires repeated electronic communications made to a person with the intent to "annoy, threaten, or harass" an individual. Rachmuth's single post about a store policy does not meet this legal threshold. Nor was Rachmuth's post directed *at* the employee as the statute requires. It was *about* the employee but not sent *to* the employee in any way. Furthermore, legal precedents in State v. Bishop (2016) and State v. Shackelford (2019) have reinforced the principle that vague and overly broad interpretations of online speech statutes violate constitutional protections of free speech and press freedom. If this charge had moved forward, it would have set a chilling precedent for journalists, activists, and citizens engaged in lawful political speech. The case raises serious questions about lawfare and the use of activist law enforcement to target political dissenters. While Freeman ultimately dropped the charges, the fact that the Holly Springs Police Department pursued them in the first place-- despite clear constitutional and procedural concerns-- demonstrates the selective weaponization of the law to intimidate and silence individuals exposing antisemitism and Islamic radicalism. The police department has yet to acknowledge any wrongdoing in Rachmuth's case. The damage is done. Rachmuth has been publicly humiliated, smeared as an extremist, and left to deal with the lasting emotional trauma inflicted on her and her children. Left-wing media outlets quickly distributed her mugshot and charge sheet, weaponized to destroy her credibility and intimidate others from speaking out. ========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========