Jacksonville FL: Protest forces release of activists arrested and brutalized at city council meeting

Jacksonville FL – On May 28, over 200 community members rallied at Duval County Jail to demand the release of three community members who had been arrested and brutalized while attending a city council public comment meeting the afternoon before.

Many organizers for the rally had been protesting and doing bail support through the night without sleep, including Leah Grady of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), who had been released on bail at 3:30 a.m. that morning and immediately took up work to organize a rally for her comrades to be released.

When asked about the rally, Grady said, “It was very heartwarming to see the Jacksonville community come together for all charges to be dropped against us and for the remaining two people to be released. At an emergency action organized in less than 24 hours, we were able to pull together many different local organizations together, rain or shine, in a truly remarkable act of solidarity. I’m eternally grateful for the Jacksonville community, for the work that the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network has been doing to forge these relationships and mobilize against political repression and against the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

With a rally called by Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN), multiple groups including Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC), Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance (JIRA), the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (NAARPR), Take ‘Em Down Jacksonville (TEDJ), FRSO, and others spoke to the crowd about the need to strengthen their movement and build an action-oriented unity to defeat the rising political repression.

“JSO wants to beat us into submission, they want to make an example out of us, they want to intimidate us, but are we scared?” shouted Monique Sampson of FRSO at the rally. The crowd replied with a booming “No!” “We’re not scared of detention, we’re not scared of arrest, we’re not even scared of death, because all of those things, every single last one of those things is a small price to pay for freedom in our lifetimes!” she continued, to cheers and applause.

At the end of the rally, with the community invigorated, the group marched to the release center of the jail and continued to chant slogans to demand the release of the organizers for over five hours until their demands were met. Community members remained standing and shouting even through two separate rainstorms. At 8 p.m., one of the two remaining organizers was released, and finally at 10 p.m., Conor Cauley, a leading organizer in JPSN and FRSO general member, was released.

“What struck me most about the attack was that when I made eye contact with the cop, we both knew what was about to happen and that it wasn’t about resisting arrest,” said Conor after being released. “I’m very grateful for the local community I have here, their efforts probably saved my life, and their solidarity provides a life worth living.”

JPSN intends to build a campaign around demanding the charges be dropped, including two felony charges being faced by Cauley, and for Maykel Aliaga-Ruiz, the officer who brutalized Cauley, to be fired.

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