Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled

A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism was blocked from leaving the US for Spain on Wednesday night, according to media reports, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of antifa – or “anti-fascist” – far-left activists.

Mark Bray, an historian who published the 2017 book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, and has taught courses on anti-fascism at the New Jersey university, was attempting to board a plane at Newark airport bound for Europe when he was informed at the boarding gate that the reservations for him and his family had been cancelled.

‘Someone’ cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second,” Bray posted on Bluesky social media. “We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’”

No details on who canceled the flight.

  • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
    12·
    10 hours ago

    It probably would have helped if he hadnt written the op-ed about how he needed to flee the country until after fleeing the country

    Like, step one of needing to flee the country is flee the fucking country. Not opining about it to the media before the bags are packed

    • crapwittyname@feddit.uk
      8·
      8 hours ago

      It’s not his fault, mate. It’s not normal to have your flight cancelled by the powers that be because you wrote something. He can’t be blamed for not thinking of absolutely everything that might go wrong and acting on each.
      The bottom line is that he should, by law and rights, have been allowed to travel.

  • DeepThought42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    19 hours ago

    Well I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure I just caught the scent of fascism wafting in the air now. :|

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
    58·
    20 hours ago

    If I were in his shoes, I’d be packing up the car for a quick trip across the Canadian border.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      27·
      19 hours ago

      Apparently, they’re starting to deploy CBP agents on exit routes into Canada. It seems they started doing this months ago, with predictably catastrophic impact on Canadian cross-border tourism. But the obvious subtext is that they’re looking to more tightly control the movement of everyone, including US citizens - and in light of NSPM-7, they’re probably going to try going after ideological opponents.

      So put your phone in lockdown mode before when crossing any US border, and restart it (and don’t unlock it before you’re through all border controls) so that it’s in BFU mode (this makes it a good bit more technically challenging for them to fuck with your device/scrape it for data/install any surveillance malware on it).

      • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
        8·
        11 hours ago

        Ain’t no probably about it, Trump and Miller have already announced that they’re using terrorism charges to go after big Democrat donors and organizations.

        Almost every phone that doesn’t have security hardware is vulnerable to forensic imaging software even in BFU. Unless you have a Pixel with GrapheneOS you’re better off wiping the phone and restoring it after your traveling is complete.