Gainesville Residents Protest Against Trump at Depot Park in “Hands-Off” Protest
Hundreds of people took to the streets Saturday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump and his administration.
A large crowd of people stretched from the Cade Museum to the Boxcar Beer and Wine Garden and all around the Depot Park area.
The protest is part of a nationwide effort of protests and marches known as the “Hands Off” initiative. As people in Gainesville, Florida protested against Trump, there were simultaneous protests in Los Angeles, California, New York City, and Gainesville, Georgia.
Several activist groups and organizations attended the protest, including Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), National Women's Liberation (NWL), Gainesville Women for Democracy (GWA), University of Florida (UF) Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) and Indivisible.
Multiple local politicians attended the protest, including Alachua County Commissioner Anna Prizzia.
Prizzia said the Trump administration has been detrimental to the rights of women and immigrants. She said, “I think they’re setting us back hundreds of years [on women’s rights]. We’ve worked so hard to get where we are. I think their ideas are really archaic…. They’re also causing real problems for our economy. So many immigrants are important to the foundation of our economy. So many jobs—they work so hard for us. They’re a fabric of our community.”
JVP member Merryl Maler said the Jewish-Palestine advocacy organization received a large amount of support at the protest. She said that many organizations were attending the protest, but that they’re all connected in the goal of freedom. Maler said, “We want all people to be free, for Palestinian people to be free…. We want to be free in our own country. It’s really about freedom.”
NWL organizer Candi Churchill gave a speech to protesters, saying “Everything we fight for is at risk right now because total fascists don’t listen to the people. Most people believe in public education. Most people believe in Medicare. I can speak on that; my family is on that.”
GWA founder Pam Smith said the goal of their organization right now is to “show the world that America is not behind Trump and that we will take our country back.”
Smith said, “I haven’t heard one word about who [Trump] does want to come into the United States. If you read the Project 2025 Report, which he’s followed to the T, he wants to disband a national level of oversight for education. I think he actually doesn’t want to have elections anymore. This is what Hitler did in 1933 Germany. They had a democracy; he was voted in as chancellor, and he dissolved congress in Germany. I think that’s what [Trump] wants to do.”
There wasn't any organized counter protests, but one man holding a large Trump flag appeared to engage in debate with protesters.
From what GnvInfo observed, the protest was entirely peaceful and there wasn’t much of a police presence.
The number of protests in Gainesville has seen a large increase since Trump’s election.
Gainesville residents led by Badass Feminists Gainesville have been organizing weekly protests every Saturday morning at the local Tesla dealership.
The United Campus Workers has a protest planned for April 17 at 5 p.m. on the corner of 13th St and University Ave.
