A viral tweet showing SOS Cuba protesters marching in the streets around Lake Eola with the aid of a police escort has led to questions around who gets to protest and when in Florida.
For the uninitiated, the state recently passed harsh crackdowns on the right to protest within the state. That law created stiff penalties around taking part in protests that are deemed unlawful, while leaving what counts as an unlawful assembly vague and largely up to the discretion of the police.
A video shared by Twitter user @NeeNeinNyetNo showed a march of protesters encouraging US intervention in Cuba heading down Rosalind Avenue in Downtown Orlando. The comparisons to protests against police brutality last year would be easy to make, even if marchers weren't standing on the city's massive symbolic sop to the movement for Black lives.
The police escort was made all the more ridiculous by one portion of the Florida law that received a fair amount of attention. The law grants civil immunity to people who hit street protesters with their car.
