On the 15th of March, SDS and their allies showed up in front of the Hillsborough County, FL courthouse in Tampa. They demanded that all charges from the brutal March 6 arrests of diversity protesters at University of S Florida/Tampa be dropped. One of those brutalized and arrested by the university police department’s goons spoke at the protest about the abuse she endured at their hands.

One speaker pulled off a T-shirt to reveal another w the names of 1,000 trans people. Another took their hormone injection right in front of the Senate committee. Still another said the committee would have blood on their hands if this passes as it would kill so many trans kids, and finished by saying “we will not be silent, Stonewall was a riot, and if this bill passes you’ll be declaring war on our trans community.

Hearing rules limited speaking to 30 seconds and banned clapping or even snapping fingers. Potential expulsion and year-long ban for any deviation from this extreme measure to suppress dissent.

On the final day of the March 4-11 Stop Cop City Week of Action, and just one day after an autopsy proved Tortuguita had been shot through his raised hands in the infamous Jan 18 police attack and murder, police attacked again. This time they raided a nonprofit community space used as a hub for medics. They arrested one person on an old TRAFFIC TICKET and badly trashed the site with no other results

This communique was sent out concerning the raid and published by TV Channel 2::

Earlier this morning, 22 people have been detained by Atlanta Police Department and Homeland Security during a raid at the site of the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation (LEAF), a community resource that has distributed fresh food to the local community for the last 6 years.

The agencies entered the house with AR15′s, aimed long guns at those who were detained and refused to provide an arrest warrant, saying it was offsite. One person has been arrested for an old traffic ticket highlighting the desperation of the state to find any reason to make arrests to repress the movement to Stop Cop City.

On the final day of the March 4-11 Stop Cop City Week of Action, and just one day after an autopsy proved Tortuguita had been shot through his raised hands in the infamous Jan 18 police attack and murder, police attacked again. This time they raided a nonprofit community space used as a hub for medics. They arrested one person on an old TRAFFIC TICKET and badly trashed the site with no other results

Video originally uploaded to twitter by Max Granger at twitter(dot)com/_maxgranger/status/1634595107579236352

twitter(dot)com/just_somefucker/status/1632883877986304000

On the 10th of March, news came out that W Va is asking the US Supreme Court to review (and no doubt uphold) their law banning transgender girls from girl’s sports in school. This in response to a lawsuit filed by a young trans girl against this restriction. That night, Our Rights DC showed up at the US Supreme Court, reminding those present that Stonewall was a riot.

On the 9th of March, Stop Cop City protesters marched on the headquarters of the Atlanta Police Foundation, key funder of the Cop City project. When they arrived, the building was boarded up, and cops some armed with rifles stood shoulder to shoulder defending it.

Unicorn Riot is reporting that all cars parked legally in a paid parking lot near a Stop Cop City protest were double-booted. Empire Parking Services has just made themselves a Cop City contractor, with ALL that that implies.

The best defense against this is (as I have said before) NOT to drive to protests and approach by bike or transit. If bikes are used, keep them close so nobody can steal them or lock them with a lock other than your own.

None the less, this happened.The right way to deal with this is an angle grinder to cut off the padlocks that lock the boots. A normal car immobilizing boot has an ordinary padlock inside it, reachable underneath the arm near the ground. If it is not well hardened bolt cutters can snap it, putting one handle on the ground and body weight on the other.

If it is hardened like a good bike lock, an angle grinder can cut through the padlock in seconds. Then just open the cover over the hub and unscrew the clamp and your car is freed. Home Depot sells battery powered grinders capable of this for $140, you will also need the 18V battery to run it at about $90 sold WITH charger. A crew should have two or three of these.

These particular boots are unusual looking, but have to have a lock somewhere. If it is totally armored around the lock, cut one of the arms off and pull the rest off the wheel

Any crowd capable of putting the 24-7 police guard of the former Cop City staging area to panicked headlong flight is probably also capable of deterring or driving off any police or parking lot employee interference with forcible recovery of unlawfully booted cars.

On the 9th of March, protesters returned to Univ of S Florida’s Tampa campus, setting up on Fowler Ave so university cops would lack the ability to enforce “trsspass” notices stemming from Mondays brutally violent arrests. Speakers (including several arrested or assaulted Monday by police) demanded all charges from Monday’s violent police attack be dropped unconditionally, and that the University meet their original demands to stand up to DeSantis, increase Black enrollment, protect trans students, and continue diversity programs.

In addition, students are demanding the USF police chief Chris Daniel be fired for elbowing a protester in the back while twisting their wrist-and for no doubt ordering all the other police violence. He was himself caught on video committing that assault.

These activists will no more shut up in response to police violence than the heroes defending the Atlanta Forest will. DeSantis is the enemy of anyone in Florida who is not white, cishet, and an “in-solid” evangelical Christian. Any university administration that submits to his demands is also the enemy and should expect to be treated as such.

Congress and the GOP have blocked DC’s criminal justice reform bill in an ugly preview of things to come. On March 8, protesters marched on Capitol Hill and staged a civil disobedience against this interference, demanding statehood and the right to be left alone. Seventeen arrests were reported.

If this campaign fails, there is the real risk of the GOP in coming years banning abortion, restricting birth control, persecuting LGBTQ folks, and possibly even banning covid vaccines in DC (as may be about to happen in FL) all thanks to Congress’s control and veto over DC Home Rule.