Government

Kidnapped Migrants More Popular On Martha’s Vineyard Than Alan Dershowitz

Shocking no one, the community is much more welcoming than the law professor constantly pretends.

By Joe Patrice on September 16, 2022 2:14 pm
alan dershowitz

(Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, you can set your clock to Alan Dershowitz publicly complaining that no one on Martha’s Vineyard likes him. He’s not invited to concerts. The library doesn’t give him an open mic anymore (he might even sue them!). And the famously chipper Larry David is yelling at him.

As headlines focus on Martha’s Vineyard this week, it’s important to remember…

In all seriousness, the people of Martha’s Vineyard, dragged into this controversy when Florida governor Ron DeSantis kidnapped migrants and sent them to the community, have mobilized to assist the victims. It’s a display of the genuine neighborly spirit that the town holds for people who don’t mortgage their ever depleting credibility to erode the rule of law.

From CNN:

In the hours after roughly 50 migrants touched down on Martha’s Vineyard in two planes sent by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the island’s community – still jarred by the unexpected arrival – rushed to help the newcomers.

“We received food, we received clothes, we received … different things, so much so that we’ve had to relocated that donation drop-off spot to the fire department,” Edgartown, Massachusetts, town administrator James Hagerty told CNN Wednesday.

Town officials even had to post on social media that they didn’t need more donations, Hagerty added, as items continued to pour in.

“I think that’s a testament to the community of the island and it’s a testament to the citizens of Edgartown, it’s a testament to everything that’s going on now,” he said.

And when we say “kidnapped,” we mean kidnapped. Because the accounts provided by some of the migrants bear all the marks of an effort to kidnap by trick. From our former editor, The Nation’s Elie Mystal:

Where the governors might be more exposed is with federal kidnapping laws. It is a crime to kidnap somebody and transport them across state lines, and that crime includes tricking people (the legal term is “inveigle”) to go “voluntarily.” NPR reports that at least some of the people who ended up on Martha’s Vineyard were told that they would be going to Boston, and that in Boston they would be able to get expedited work papers; Rolling Stone reports that they were also promised housing.

This is, of course, a time-honored tactic from the South’s racism playbook. As the JFK Library pointed out:

Yet it still doesn’t work. Because what these people can’t get through their addled brains — addled in part by the media outlets Alan Dershowitz insists on serving — is that liberal enclaves don’t talk about compassion just to sound superior and scold bigots, but because they actually believe it.

Conservatives are probably right that the people of Martha’s Vineyard are angry, but the thing the MAGA fanboys and girls don’t get is that Martha’s Vineyard isn’t angry AT the transplanted migrants in their community, but FOR the victims of an unnecessary political stunt that hurt real people so Ron DeSantis could get some free publicity.

Let’s Call DeSantis’s Migrant Stunt What It Is—Kidnapping [The Nation]
Donations poured in and volunteers who rushed to help: Here’s how Martha’s Vineyard communities responded to the arrival of migrants [CNN]

Earlier: Summer Officially Begins As Alan Dershowitz Publicly Complains About No One Liking Him On Martha’s Vineyard
Alan Dershowitz Will Defend Free Speech By Suing The Library
Alan Dershowitz Blasted By Larry David At Martha’s Vineyard Grocery Store
Alan Dershowitz Is The Saddest Man In Martha’s Vineyard