Orlando Police officers pepper-spray pro-Palestine protesters at Lake Eola

An estimated 1,200 people from across the state, including children and families, gathered for what began as a peaceful rally in Orlando Saturday afternoon to uplift the call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The demonstration, staged at Lake Eola Park downtown, also commemorated the 76th anniversary of Nakba, a term that translates to “catastrophe” in Arabic. Nakba marks the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians and the formation of the State of Israel during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. It is generally commemorated on May 15.

While the Orlando rally began peacefully shortly after 3:30 p.m., the gathering later on devolved into a chaotic scene as Orlando Police Department officers stormed the crowd about two hours later, deploying pepper spray, pushing and shoving protesters, and arresting two.

Dave Decker, a photographer taking photos on behalf of Orlando Weekly , said this escalation began with the use of a bullhorn by one of the protest attendees. Protesters hadn’t been granted a permit to use sound amplification devices at the event, and were thus warned against the use of such devices prior to the start of the rally.

Sabrina Miller, a 22-year-old Orlando resident gassed by police at the demonstration, said she didn’t learn about why police first rushed at the crowd until later. She doesn’t remember hearing a verbal warning from officers, who had — as she describes it — essentially “caged in” protesters as they first gathered and then marched around the park. This is a crowd control tactic also known as " kettling ."

“They refused to let us march into the streets, so they pinned us basically into Lake Eola Park on all sides,” Miller told Orlando Weekly in a phone call Monday morning.

Organizers of the rally — including the Florida Palestine Network with support from allied groups such as REAL, Dream Defenders and Jewish Voices for Peace South Florida — had directed protesters at the start of the event not to engage with police, said Miller. The crowd included a number of elderly people and children, she added.

After the use of the bullhorn, she remembers about a dozen cops rushing the crowd in her direction, nearly pushing a young man next to her — who was later arrested — to the ground. At first, she and the young man locked arms with others around them, to remain upright.

Officers "maced" them, she said, and came at him again, tackling him to the ground — bringing Miller with him.

“I know the boy next to me did not put any hands on the police because both his arms were locked with friends' beside [him],” she recalls. Miller hit her own head on the way down. A nearby friend pulled her out of the cloud of gas.

What also sticks with Miller is what she heard around her, especially from the younger attendees there with their families, as the escalation occurred.

“I could hear children screaming behind me,” she recalls. About half of the rally attendees, she estimates, were families and children of those gathered in support of an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

“I've been to several [pro-Palestine protests] where there's been absolutely no police engagement,” said Miller, who was born and raised in Orlando. “I find it very ironic that this was when they chose to use the most brutal force.”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani — the only state legislator to support a ceasefire resolution introduced by Democratic colleague Angie Nixon earlier this year — later described OPD’s use of force at the rally as “totally uncalled for.”

“Folks are peacefully protesting in a public park and this reaction from law enforcement was totally uncalled for and unnecessarily escalates the situation,” Eskamani wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Incredibly disappointed,” she added.

The Orlando Police Department released a statement to the media that evening, sharing that police had “deployed a handheld chemical agent at a group that became disruptive” at the demonstration.

According to the statement, OPD arrested two people who will be charged with battery on a law enforcement officer — a third-degree felony charge that can result in up to five years in prison, if convicted. The police statement reported “no injuries” from the clash.

“The Orlando Police Department is committed to keeping everyone safe who chooses to peacefully assemble in the City of Orlando, while also maintaining the safety of residents and businesses,” the statement reads. There is no mention in the statement of why OPD charged on the crowd to begin with.

Miller told us many people in the crowd were blinded by the chemical spray, and struggling to just see or hear. One person who was arrested, she believes, had “kind of smacked an officer on the helmet with a paper sign” after police had “started beating us.”

The young man standing next to her at the time it all went down — also later arrested — was carried away by police “by all four limbs,” bleeding from the mouth, she said. According to an Instagram post published by the Florida Palestine Network on Sunday, both individuals arrested by OPD have been released on bail.

Saturday’s demonstration was one of just a number of pro-Palestinian protests — and two University of Central Florida student encampments — organized in Orlando and globally since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas led an attack in southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

Israel’s military response to the attack, supported by billions of U.S. tax dollars, has been brutal. Palestinians living in Israel-occupied Gaza continue to grapple with displacement, famine, a collapsed healthcare system due to Israeli attacks, and brutal force by Israeli forces. The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s military operation has now surpassed 35,000 , a figure that reportedly includes more than 14,000 children.

Saturday’s demonstration in Orlando was organized as a statewide demonstration, calling for allies from across the state to attend in support of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to mark Nakba.

The same day, a group of protesters organized with Central Florida Queers for Palestine rallied near Disney World , managing to block off an exit ramp from Interstate-4 in Orlando before being arrested.

Some students at the University of Central Florida — joining students at dozens of colleges and universities nationwide — have  called on their school's administration to cut financial ties with companies that support Israel's military operation in addition to other demands.

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