The 11th of December was a global day of strike, boycott, and action for Gaza. Tampa, FL threw down alongside DC, Philly, and so many other cities. Marching from pro-Israeli Mayor Jane Castor’s City Hall, protesters occupied and shut down the Kennedy Street Bridge. This is one of the bridges over the river that divided Tampa.

In addition to the marchers on foot, vehicles were used to protect marchers holding the bridge from any attempt to ram through by violent motorists. DeSantis has made it legal to do so, but cannot repeal the laws of physics: a commuter car or even an SUV cannot ram through a “flag truck” with a Palestinian flag and protesters on it. Earlier, these and other vehicles had circulated in small groups in city streets, spreading the message with the flags and honking horns.

Getting everyone back off the bridge proved the most dangerous part of the mission. The cops were furious. To avoid leaving the car and truck drivers who had protected the marchers behind, marchers moved to the sidewalk to open the door for them to escape instead of being left behind. It was not to be: as soon as the reformed motorcade turned right leaving the bridge, cops pounced and ordered those vehicles they could find and catch to pull over after that turn.. It appears the majority of the motorcade vehicles escaped, but not all.

Most of the march continued back to City Hall, but a security element stayed with the cars. Cameras were trained on the cops in the classic one forward, one back model that makes forcibly halting the video without being filmed doing so almost impossible. The Israeli-trained cops no doubt realized the march could be summoned back in minutes. They may have written tickets (this is unconfirmed) but made no attempt at arrests or towing.

Cops learned the hard way that trying to pick people off afterwards is futile. Everyone they mess with has backup, and preventing it from being summoned is almost impossible.

There has been a lot of ugly harassment of and cheap shots at pro-Palestine activists by governors (such as DeSantis), cops, mayors, university presidents and employers, the works. None of it changes the fact that we have each other’s backs!