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They came by the several hundreds to gather at the north end of Munn Park on Saturday just before 1 p.m., mingling with late shoppers at the Farmers Curb Market, their signs held discreetly low.
Once they had assembled in a broad, deep arc, the signs went up:
“Hands Off Our Future”
“Impeach Trump Arrest Musk”
“We Stand With Ukraine”
“Unwilling Participant of an Idiocracy”
And they chanted, “Keep ICE out!” and “Musk has got to go!”
Free Speech: Mari Marks, the policy manager for the Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was a featured speaker at the Saturday rally. She urged the crowd to fight for free speech.
“When we say the First Amendment is under attack, we are not being dramatic. Most of the egregious action happening right now in the federal government and the state of Florida leads back to suppression of speech.”
Marks said people also must resist Israel’s war in Gaza, which she called genocide.
Fighting Back: The Munn Park rally was part of an organized effort across Florida and the U.S. The web page for the Lakeland edition read, “Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. Polk County, Florida is fighting back!”
Around the U.S. Hands Off protesters gathered in New York, Atlanta, Boston and an estimated 1,200 other cities and towns across the U.S. on Saturday.
Thousands gathered at the Washington Monument in D.C. That rally was permitted for 10,000 people.
In Rochester, New York, an estimated 3,000 people gathered for a rally in Cobbs Hill Park. An onlooker said, “It’s like Woodstock out there.”
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Awesome thank you for protesting!!! Hands off our democracy, veterans, farmers, civil rights, schools, children and nutrition, healthcare, history, legal immigrants, AND SOCIAL SECURITY!!!!!
It was a great turnout! Let’s not stop! We need to continue to stand up!
Such a hopeful turnout! Teddy, my golden doodle, proudly wore his “Dogs Against DOGE sign!
We love America! Looking forward to how the current estamishment changes the world. Might take a minute though, not going to be as easy as changing the ditry diaper democracy we’ve suffered under.
Where are they getting their so called information ? Trump is NOT CUTTING Social Security, he is finding wasteful spending, Elon DID NOT DO THE HITLER SALUTE he was saying his heart was with the people, that’s why he touched his heart first. The Hitler salute DOES NOT DO THAT ONLY HOLD YOUR ARM OUT. Are people that blind and stupid!!! So much FAKE INFORMATION OUT THERE.
I agree. Where are they getting their information? Billions of dollars in fraud have been found in Social Security, That’s our hard earned tax dollars. It seemed like Woodstock? At Woodstock we were against war. Hundreds of thousands of young people have been slaughtered due to stuborness in not meeting for talks. Whatever happened to “Give Peace a Chance.”