Winter Garden political activist among the Orlando 8 protesters roughed up by Orlando Police

A Winter Garden political activist is among the Orlando 8 — eight demonstrators arrested Saturday during a violent encounter downtown with Orlando Police (OPD) following a rally at Lake Eola Park that was organized by Central Florida Queers for Palestine to protest Israel’s war in Gaza and recent bombing in Lebanon. 

The activist, 24, an Arab American Muslim, was charged with disorderly conduct and posted a $250 bond. She wants the charges dropped. Video recorded by other demonstrators during the melee with OPD and posted on Instagram reveal discrepancies in the arresting officer's report supporting the charges. 

Body-cam video released by OPD appears to show the incident was sparked by an OPD officer on a bike shoving event organizer Lamia Moukaddam off her feet into a tree where she hit her head and slumped to the ground. At the time, Moukaddam had tried to record a counter-protester who had followed the group from the park.

When others went to Moukaddam’s aid, police “swarmed,” said the Winter Garden political activist. She spoke with VoxPopuli on the condition her name not be used because she is fearful of retaliation. She said "multiple people [were] being harassed, being brutalized, being assaulted by the police” as they recorded the officers’ actions. 

(Watch here and here on Instagram. A “use of force investigation is underway,” according to an OPD statement.)

The Winter Garden activist said she was recording on her phone and had attempted to get an officer to ease up on another demonstrator who had a medical condition when she was arrested.

“I was knocked back once. Then I was thrown to the side after being threatened with pepper spray. The third time I was thrown down, I was arrested,” she said. She suffered a concussion in the chaos. “A cop had his knee on my back. I said, I can't breathe. They kept the pressure. I was not resisting, but they accused me of resisting arrest because I said, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Like you need to let me up. I can't breathe.”

The activist was charged with violating Orlando’s City Ordinance 43.06 against “caus[ing], provok[ing] or engag[ing] in any fight, brawl or riotous conduct” and Florida Statute 843.02 resisting arrest without violence. It’s a state misdemeanor. 

She wants the charges dropped because videos recorded during the downtown encounter between demontrators and police cast doubt on the accuracy of the arrest affidavit supporting the charges. 

In the report, the arresting officer, Michael Maya, stated that he arrived at the scene as several officers were attempting to arrest an individual while demonstrators held on to her. Maya is referring to Moukaddam.

Another demonstrator who goes by the name Brotha Amp and was also arrested, explained in a phone interview with VoxPopuli that when Moukaddam went down, two demonstrators immediately threw themselves on top of her. He said that’s Organizing 101.

“Your comrade is now on the ground. Your comrade is dazed. Your comrade is vulnerable. What do you do? You protect your comrade,” said Brotha Amp, 28, who added that he is trained in organizing street protests and de-escalation techniques.

In the arrest report, Maya noted that he saw a “female wearing black clothing” holding onto Moukaddam and that he “took hold of her by her arms and physically removed her from the arrestee.”

But street video posted to Instagram shows that the Winter Garden activist is not one of the people holding Moukaddam. Another demonstrator also wearing a black t-shirt is holding her. (We’re not including a link to that video to protect the activist’s identity.)

The arrest report goes on:“The female continued to resist my efforts to put her in handcuffs by forcibly pulling her arms under her body and tensing her arms to not be placed in handcuffs.”

The Winter Garden activist may have “pulled her arms under her body” and “tensed her arms” — she’d just been thrown to the pavement — but the street video shows the Winter Garden activist hovering over another demonstrator as he’s being handcuffed when an OPD officer shoves her from the side as he strides by. She goes flying to the pavement, and it’s a second officer kneeling on the ground who quickly flips her onto her stomach and handcuffs her hands behind her back. This could very well be Maya; it's hard to know from the video. But he had an assist from a fellow officer, which is not noted in the arrest report. 

This all happened, video shows, while Moukaddam lay in the street in handcuffs, with an officer holding her down. 

When VoxPopuli reached out to Orlando Police for comment on Friday, a spokesperson responded via email, "This event involved a dynamic scene with multiple individuals and arrests. This arrest is currently being reviewed by the City Prosecutor’s Office. No filing decision has been made at this time." 

In addition to a potentially inaccurate arrest report, the Winter Garden activist alleges she was improperly video recorded while she changed into the required jail clothing at Orange County Central Booking and Release Center.

“They filmed me when I was naked,” she said, adding that she counted seven or eight officers in the room as she changed clothes. She said at least one other demonstrator also reported being filmed while naked.

VoxPopuli has made a public records request for the video. 

The activist said corrections officers told her that filming was a security measure.

“They accused me of threatening them because I said, May Allah curse you,” she said. “That was, in their eyes, a threat because I was a Muslim Arab woman, and they must be the victim, with their guns and their tasers.

“I was handcuffed and incapacitated. There was clearly no threat to anyone's security except for my own, but they still said that they needed, for their security, to film me."

A spokesperson for the Orange County Corrections Division told VoxPopuli in a Friday email, "Whenever a situation involves the potential for escalation, and if time permits, these encounters are recorded for the protection of the arrestee and staff." 

The spokesperson added that it's a supervisor's call regarding the number of corrections officers in the room with the object to "de-escalate and avoid a force incident. Having the presence of several officers is one factor in de-escalation." 

Meanwhile, Brotha Amp told VoxPopuli that the Orlando 8 are considering legal options. They already have a lawyer.