On the 11th of May, a large Nakba (catastrophe) Day march commemorating the loss of much of Palestine to Israel assembled in Orlando’s Lake Eola Park. A storm of bike cops descended on the march within the hour. They were quite aggressive in blocking the march from leaving the park.

Once the march turned back to march clockwise around the lake, cops seemed to watch and wait. At the NE corner they pounced. I personally was harassed about being on a bike of my own, no doubt as cops didn’t want my camera in the park. Not willing to give up my ability to maneuver against them for safety, I had to exit the park and film from the outside. Within minutes, they broadcast a mostly inaudible warning not to use bullhorns, then started to muscle their way into the crowd.

Cops never did get anyone with a bullhorn, instead going all the way to attack mode on encountering an arm-locked blockade. Two people were arrested, neither in possession of a bullhorn, and cops fired pepper spray at that moment. They fired a LOT of pepper spray, generating a wind-driven yellow cloud that maced many in the crowd including children as young as five years old.

Within the hour, protesters returned to Disney’s entrance off I-4, this time targetting the mile marker 67 off-ramp to Disney and not the main traffic lanes. Unknown if this was meant as a reprisal for the police violence, but it certainly qualifies as an effective one. This would be considered “counter-value targetting.” That means ensuring that if your side is harmed by an aggressor, something the aggressor values highly pays the price. Nothing is more valuble to the City of Orlando than Disney, the economic engine of the whole area.

Video from DC Media Group footage

On the 9th of May, students and supporters marched to 19th and F sts, in front of the George Washington University administration building. The university still under siege by cops from the raid two days earlier. Therefore, students set up in the middle of the street, and even pitched tents in the street.

A storm of bike cops showed up, and a protracted standoff ensued, with fears of a kettle and mass arrest that proved to be another Bagshaw Bluff. Killer Cop Bagshaw appeared to be commanding the cops again, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd.

Eventually, protesters decided to march back out of the potential trap in a single strong unit, similar to the decision made at USF to march in, show the flag (literally) and march back out but this time only under direct threat.

Video from clips by John Zangas/DC Media Group

On the 7th of May, George Washington University (GWU) students marched on the home of the university’s president. Cops barely got there in time to hold the steps of the house as a strong crowd rolled in. This protest makes it plain: those who continue to invest in and support genocide will be held personally accountable.

On the 6th of May, student protesters at University of Central Florida set up camp at the university’s entrance at Alafaya and University Blvd. Commencement may have come and gone and classes ended for the semester, but the university’s investments in apartheid and genocide are still ongoing. Thus protesters continue to target the university.

As the day wore on, police harassment kept things tense. Anyone stopping a car in the area was pulled over, forcing use of a complex system to deliver supplies without anyone bringing a car into harm’s way.

At one point, one of the university police golf carts showed up with a sound system. After several minutes of lies and crap about the university respecting free speech etc, they broadcast first threats of arrest for unstated “law violations” then came the kicker: they threatened students or staff engaging in “prohibited acts” with explusion or firing (this is on the video).

At about 7PM, cops began blocking off roads near the campsite, and acting in a way to imply a kettle was imminent. No further attack came until the 10PM mess.

At 10PM the shit hit the fan, or so the cops were thinking. A report went out over IG that cops were not letting anyone leave-but the entire camp had already escaped. Unknown if the cops intended arrests but were outsmarted, or if the kettle the cops set up was a bluff like their bike line on May 4 was.

On the 4th of May, the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando held their commencement. As graduates filed out, a pro-Palestine protest was set up front and center in the grassy mall onto which they emerged. A very large number of bike cops and protest pens up front walled off the protest-and one of the cops was armed with a yellow shotgun type weapon. This is designated by its color as a crowd control weapon, which fires impact munitions rather than lead bullets or shot.

Before cops could aggressively shut things down on their timetable, protesters withdrew by surprise as a cohesive unit. Bike cops moved to circle the exiting protesters but made no move to stop those who went right through their line.

After the GWU encampment raised the flag of Palestine, the university responded with a huge US flag hung from a building. Students responded to this with a projector and a giant “Genocide Joe” image indicating what that flag REALLY stands for.

Also on video: Jewish students in the encampment demanding a ceasefire and not afraid to show who they are.

On Mayday (May 1), protesters assembled for a press conference at 56th and Fowler near USF. First up was a press conference, which was heavily attended by the corporate press. There was so much corporate press in fact, I was mistaken for one of these liars by one of our good people! Some of the questions they asked were quite hostile, crap about what parents would think of disrupted graduations etc. Well, nobody gets to graduate from a bombed university in Gaza, especially from under the rubble!

After the presser came a march. This time around,we went past the usual turnaround point for 56th and Fowler Palestine marches, going all the way to the big entrance to USF that goes to the library and MLK Plaza. Cops made a showy entry to campus at that point but the massive march had them heavily outnumbered. Awaiting orders that never came, they stood and watched as hundreds of marchers (maybe more) swarmed onto the campus.

Marching up almost the same approach route used on Monday save that it began at Fowler, protesters marched straight to MLK Plaza, scene of the previous days tear gas, rubber bullets, knee on neck incident et all.

Once on MLK Plaza, Muslim evening prayers were held. This was probably one of the things the administration least wanted to see on the Plaza. Any attempt to break this up by force would have been potentially very ugly international news, like cops raiding a church but between different religions. Even US embassy protests and/or rioting in US allies in the Middle East would not have been out of the question! After concluding prayers, protesters marched out in a single strong unit, staying together and leaving no stragglers for cops or other violent Zionists to pick off.

No attempt was made to pitch tents and stay the night. Doing so would have required very strong logistics support combined with shields and gas masks, not the sort of protest people want to bring their kids to. Since this was a family-friendly event, pushing that far was off the table, but this does not mean it was impossible by any means.

This was a “thunder run” against USF, a show of force to drive the flag of Palestine back onto campus and put the supporters of genocide in their place. This was a real “who run Bartertown? moment as in Mad Max for Tampa’s Mayor and IOF trained cops.

Note that Tampa has one of the largest Palestinian populations in the entire US, and for Palestinian students at USF this fight is existential.

April 30 was Day 2 of the Palestine solidarity encampment (tents and all) at University of South Florida in Tampa. Remembering the failed police attack the day before, this time police used far more force

Protesters had shield too, but not enough for everyone and obviously didn’t have enough if any gas masks to go around.

One of the worst gas canisters was picked up and thrown out of the encampment, but as it did not land in the cops any “assault” charge or warrant for this is crap. Drone footage proves it didn’t go into the cops.

The cops told everyone they were firing into with the gas canisters to “consider yourselves under arrest.” Arrest estimates range from 10 to 25, so there is a good chance at least some protesters were able to escape.

Cops warned further resistance would cause them to use injurious force, but they should remember that’s a game two can play. Any amount of force is justified in resisting a genocide like the one the US is funding in Gaza as far as I am concerned. Cop City is just the beginning…

Raid warnings the evening of April 30 proved to be a false alarm. The daytime scene was quite peaceful.

This was two days after an attempted late-night police raid was driven off and unarrests made. Note the piled up police barricades, ripped down as protesters went from defense to offense after the raid.

This protest that became the start of an encampment was on Nakba Day, the day set aside in Palestine to remember the loss of their land and destruction of their homes to make way for Israel. “Nakba” means “Catastrophe” and the Nakba can be thought of as 1492 in 1948.

Knowing their in-house police department would be overmatched by such a large crowd as Nakba day was sure to summon forth, they summoned the IOF-trained brutes of the Tampa Police Department to arrest anyone seen trying to set up a tent, maybe anyone in possession of a tent. Arrests began before any tents could be set up.

Note that to arrest someone for setting up a tent prior to any tent being set up and staked is probably unlawful.

There were two arrests relatively quickly, covered on this video. There was a later report of 9 violent arrests, unknown if the other 7 were again in response to tents or came from a later attempt to disperse the rest of the encampment. There were a number of pro-IOF/pro-Israel counterprotesters, one in an IOF T-shirt got quite close to the protest while fiddling with his phone, police of course didn’t bother any of them no matter what their presence had the potential to incite.

The encampment did continue without tents, the university and the cops told student protesters they were going to be “roughed up” if they stayed on past 5PM. Unknown to this author if the other violent arrests were after 5PM or a continuation of the tent arrests. Shortly after the first two, someone spotted police vans of the type used for mass arrests near the university, but this was either a bluff or just transportation for the huge number of cops that surrounded the encampment later. or if the encampment survived a second attack.

Maybe the USF football team should change their name from “Bulls” to something else? Comparing these cops to bulls is insulting to actual bulls.