Artist and former Hunter College Adjunct Shellyne Rodriguez, who was kicked out of school yesterday after a video showed her threatening a journalist from the conservative daily tabloid The New York Post, was arrested in the Bronx this morning. Prior to the incident, Rodriguez had suffered intense online harassment following a confrontation with an anti-abortion group on Hunter’s Upper Manhattan campus.
At the scene of the arrest outside the 43rd Precinct today, two reporters were present along with a videographer who emerged from a New York Police Department (NYPD) vehicle, as evidenced Hyperallergic. The police erected a barricade at the entrance and the cameraman followed Rodriguez, who was driven into a police car in handcuffs. An NYPD spokesperson said Rodriguez faces threatening and harassment charges related to his altercation with New York Post reporter Reuven Fenton earlier this week.
On Monday, Fenton showed up at Rodriguez’s home unannounced and reportedly knocked on his door to request an impromptu interview related to her exchange with the pro-life group Students for Life of America in Hunter three weeks ago. Rodriguez was filmed threatening Fenton with a machete before retreating and closing the door behind her. Additional footage showed Rodriguez outside the building with the knife in his hand. No injuries were reported.
In the weeks following Rodriguez’s confrontation with Students for Life of America, Rodriguez received “despicable and hateful emails, text messages, and voicemails.” Some of these messages, reviewed by Hyperallergicincluded death threats and physical violence as well as racial, sexual and anti-immigrant slurs.
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic Yesterday Rodriguez said she believed her life was in danger. “All of this has taken a toll on my mental health, robbing me of my sense of security and creating a reasonable fear that they will show up at my house to cause me physical harm, as has happened with so many other women who have had the same their personal information exposed as a form of politically motivated harassment,” Rodriguez said.
Students for Life of America is an anti-abortion organization whose board members include representatives from several right-wing lobby groups as well as the Republican National Committee. On May 2, Rodriguez approached members of the group who were dropping off at Hunter College’s 68th Street campus. In a video shared by Students for Life, Rodriguez verbally confronted them on the spot before undressing their table display, which consisted of a box containing rubber fetal models and a variety of postcards and other printed materials related to the organization. The group shared the footage with campus security, and Rodriguez was summoned to the Hunter College provost’s office on May 12 for questioning and asked to apologize to students for her use of profanity and for disheveling posting, which she complied with.
Rodriguez alleged the filmed confrontation was “faked” by the organization before sharing the clip on his social media and website and funneling it to other right-wing outlets such as college correction. The story was picked up by FoxNews and the New York Post and went viral almost immediately, prompting followers to find Rodriguez’s personal contact information and send him a slew of abusive messages and threats on every virtual avenue. Over the past few days, these conservative outlets and others have called Rodriguez “crazy” and “maniacal,” centering their reporting on Rodriguez’s role as an activist in the Bronx and zooming in on his tattoo of the FTP Movement. The acronym stands for “Fuck the Police” as well as “Free the People” and represents a mobilization led by activists against overpolicing and racist violence.
“Even though this incident has stakes in my life, it is ultimately only part of a larger political struggle unfolding across the country,” Rodriguez said in his statement yesterday. “Right-wing media organizations weaponize and sensationalize this case to advance their agenda, and use me as a prism through which to project their attacks on women, trans people, black people, Latinx, migrants and beyond. .”
The NYPD did not provide further details on the charges of harassment and threats. This is a developing story and will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.
