May 30, 2024GRDSA

Drop the Charges!

Four community members were arrested while peacefully protesting US support of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Please donate to help cover the legal fees of fighting these bogus charges. And please sign the petition to drop the charges!

On Wednesday, May 15, the Grand Rapids DSA participated in Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids’ protest against the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the US  government’s gross complicity in it. Our peaceful protest was interrupted by a completely disproportionate police response. After only 5 minutes of marching, a fleet of police cars was tailing the protesters and blaring their horns and sirens.

The GRPD continued to follow the march to where it ended at Monument Park. Then officers moved in to arrest people at random. They arrested 3 members of Palestine Solidarity GR and 1 member of GRDSA for protesting peacefully and filming the police. The protest moved to the Kent County Jail where they were held for more than 4 hours before finally being released on bond. We did nothing wrong at our protest against genocide but they are still facing bogus misdemeanor charges.

Protester holding sign that reads, "Never again is now. Speak out against genocide."

In the West Bank, settler-conquerors and their IDF backers bulldoze and burn Palestinian communities in a creeping, decades-long conquest. The vast majority of Gaza, a city of 2 million human beings, lies in ruins. Netanyahu and his armies are determined to flatten what’s left so that the refugees of this war can be forced out in a grand act of ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile there is a movement in our country with the express goal of outlawing all protests against these crimes and our complicity in them under threat of arrest and police brutality. It started in the colleges and now it’s in our city streets. It’s more important now than ever to fight back against the apartheid policies of Israel and our growing police state before it’s too late. We’ll continue protesting with our comrades in Palestine Solidarity GR and anyone else horrified by the state of the world today should do the same. We will not be silenced by intimidation.