Florida is a “stand your ground” state but you would not know it from how Orlando bike cops treated Palestine marchers at Lake Eola on March 16, 2024. On that day, on our second lap around Lake Eola, an Israel supporter assaulted marchers but was apparently kept at bay by his own limited fighting skills. I did not see the initial incident but the aftermath was ugly. Not long after saying right into the camera that they were there to keep us safe, cops did something very different. The march was stopped, two people were being “questioned” by cops while they argued with one of the marchers. Unknown who the other two were. When one of the marchers told the cops they had been physically assaulted, cops responded that they only intervention they would make would be to arrest both sides for “fighting”-in a stand your ground state!

This is like the worst excesses of how some schools treat students harassed by bullies. This is intolerable in any school and is intolerable in the street too. Self-defense against physical violence is a human right. So it is at Lake Eola-and so it is in Gaza.

The cops did not proceed to arrest attempts, it seems their actual intent was to say “You are on your own. We stand with Israel and you are responsible for your own security.” Message received: if Zionists assault protesters, the arrival of cops is the arrival of more Zionists. Thus the common chant in Orlando “OPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same!”

Cops don’t keep us safe, we keep us safe!

Every Saturday, Palestinians and their friends gather in Orlando to protest for their homeland. This time around, on the 9th of March, protesters explicitly chanted “We are Resistance.”

Note that Gaza has been fighting a war of survival since October. In this context, “resistance” gains the meaning “resistance to genocide.”

Bike cops were present again in excessive numbers relative to the size of the march, but this time around they mostly behaved themselves

On the 8th of March, Youth Action Fund hosted the March for Our Dreams and FreedomRally in Orlando, Florida. One speaker celebrated the defeat of DeSantis’s main anti-trans bill in Tallahassee while another warned “I will not be erased.”

Women, transgender folks, the rest of the LGBTQ community, and the Latinx community were all well represented at the rally. At the conclusion of the rally, the crowd marched around Lake Eola, to chants of “Si Se Puede!” and “DeSantis has to go!”(latter on this video)

Video by Dromographos, also at

https://social.dromografos.report/notes/9qlsohly88ok00wm

Prior to the blockade on Penn Ave was a gathering near the White House, while the sun was still up. During this, there was an incident with a driver facing the protest instead of turning on H st, reportedly revving their engine at the protesters.

This could have been anything from a lost driver freaking out to a terrorist seeking to kill pro-Palestine protesters. Cops swarmed the driver in a fast takedown. In the true abolitionist spirit, protesters then made a determined effort to defend the driver from the cops! During the fight, the driver’s hat came off-revealing a very young looking man probably a teenager-but in a borderline “fashy” haircut. Note that while this style (essentially a grown-out high and tight) is popular among fascists and is named for that, others do unknowningly wear it.

Once the sun went down things wound up for real.The chant at the blockade of Penn Ave was:

“Democratic Party, we know what side you’re on! Remember Hiroshima! Remember Vietnam!”

Due to this protest, Biden’s motorcade was rerouted. This was similar to what GW Bush had to do during some of the State of the Union protests during his term.

Then came the speech itself: I did not watch it, but Al Jazeera confirms Biden promised to respond to Israel’s refusal to allow food and medical aid to reach Gaza by building a temporary port for the delivery of humanitarian aid. This while the US continues to ship weapons to Israel. The former US ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administion warned that Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah might push the US to the “limit” and endanger Israel’s access to US weapons.

If Biden follows through with that port, it will be a major, major shot across Israel’s bow. Things have ben happening since that horrific Bread Massacre: Aaron Bushnells’s courageous “extreme protest,” the US food airdrop that while inedible still sent a message to Israel, mushrooming protests, and now this.

If Israel is forced to cancel the invasion of Rafah, if the US really does build a temporary port to deliver aid, YOU DID THIS, PEOPLE! This is the power of the people, pushing a genocidal regime and its backers to their knees and forcing them to tap out.

Video from raw footage by Our Rights DC and Freedom News TV

On the 2nd of March, a major protest at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC was followed by a residential protest at the home of the Israeli Ambassador. This may have been the largest home demo in DC history, as it was reported “thousands” were present. The next largest was an ANSWER protest at the home of GW Bush’s “Secretary of Offense” Rumsfeld early in the second Iraq War.

On the 2nd of March, pro-Palestine supporters gathered at Orlando’s Lake Eola for a vigil to remember Aaron Bushnell. The vigil drew a wider community that I have seen at the marches. Nobody had expected that a game-changing stand against genocide in Gaza would come from an active-duty US Airman.

As far as I am concerned, he showed the courage of those who fought in WWII’s battle of London, those who took to the skies to stop Nazi Germany’s bombing raids on London civilians. All gave some, some gave all…

Two factors may have halted Israel’s plans for an all-out attack on Rafah. First came Aaron’s sacrifice, which shocked the conscience of the world the way the Buddhist monks in Vietnam who took similar measures against Diem in 1963 did. This created unfavorable political conditions for further escalation by Israel. Then came the decision by Biden (under enormous pressure) to airdrop food to civilians in Gaza. Those airdrops mean US airmen putting forth for Gaza for the second time in less than a week. The combination of the Bread Massacre with Aaron’s sacrifice may well have forced Biden’s hand on the airdrops.

For Israel to launch an all-out air and armored assault on Rafeh while the US was dropping food, or worse yet to shoot at the planes would have generated pressure on Capitol Hill to return AIPAC donations and cut off US military aid to Israel. That would go double if another US airman was killed by Israeli fire.

On the 2nd of March in Orlando, Florida, pro-Gaza marchers again took to downtown. Some kind of event may have been taking place as downtown was busy-and cops aggressive at trying to contain the march. Bike cops lined up nose to tail blocking side streets at seemingly every crossing. They also attempted to hurry up a sidewalk crossing while the march funneled onto a sidewalk narrowed by scaffolding. They even threatened the march when they deemed the march had stopped somewhere on the sidewalk. These cops were trained by Israel and can be considered IOF troops when deployed against Palestine protesters.

The 2nd of March was an international day of action for Gaza, due to expectations Israel would launch an all-out attack on Rafah that day. As of sunset pon Marfch 2 EST, that attack seems to have been delayed. If so, credit can probably go to Aaron Bushnell for creating “unfavorable conditions” for Israel’s “special military operation” in Rafah.

This video has emerged of FL Capital Police arresting the wrong person as part of a witch-hunt against those who dared to protest DeSantis’ 2023 round of hateful and bigoted legislation.

The Let Us Live March was to speak out against HB1619, the bill to declare drivers licenses held by trans folks with updated gender markers to be “false IDs.” The bill also would prohibit insurance companies from paying for gender-affirming care. The bill was to be heard this day on the FL House floor, but the FL Senate has announced they are refusing to consider the bill.

DeSantis is attempting to implement the drivers license provisions of this bill by DECREE, without legislation. Courts may well slap that down, but that process could pass through trans folks sitting in jail for “driving on an invalid license” on cash bail they cannot afford. That would take months, and could easily kill people.

The defeat of the bill may have pissed off the cops. Fl State reps Rayner, Nixon, Davis, and Eskamani were able to get a leash on the cops long enough to keep them off the march, but that false arrest implies they were looking for any way or excuse to take revenge. Note that cops fanned out across FL armed with warrants hunting Occupy Tallahassee participants after last year’s session ended.

(video from raw clips by Ford Fischer)

(more video, from two Palestine-focussed journalists)

On the 26th of February, DC area pro-Palestine activists descended by the hundreds on the Israeli Embassy. They were there to remember Aaron Bushnell, the US Air Force servicemember to set himself on fire, saying “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

At least one Israeli flag was burned while Aaron’s words were repeated, at which point chants rose of “if we burn, you burn with us!” Someone said “This is in solidarity with Aaron, who burned his body. At the very least, we can burn the Zionist flag.”

One protester confronted Secret Service cops for standing on the exact spot where Aaron Burnell stood as he delivered his famous last words.

At one point in the protest, even the slogan “we won’t hide, we won’t cower, take up guns and sieze their power” was used! I think the message of the week is “No more crap, no more talk, no more half measures.” Just whatever it takes to shut down a genocide.

On the 24th of February, the same Christian nationalist cult that assaulted a child at Pasco Pride last year took a crushing defeat. As soon as they arrived, they were served trespass warnings and forced to retreat to the park entrance. As soon as I advanced on them and raised my camera, they pulled their signs down and started packing out. Word was they had gotten bored standing at the entrance all by themselves instead of invading the festival and assaulting patrons.

Chris Nelson’s “Gays against Groomers” did little better: they circled and circled but were unable to find any way into the park not corked up solid by security.

We win, they lose!