Lamia Mukadam is a victim of violence herself and has been charged.
The 27-year-old made headlines earlier this week. picture Information about her arrest at Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protests began circulating online. Police had maintained that it was a routine detention to prevent escalation, but instead it was a “whole new level of violation”, Mukadam said. defender.
Mukadam, co-founder of a harm reduction nonprofit that works to prevent overdoses, was leaving a rally in downtown Orlando. A small group of queer Palestinian women in central Florida were approached by a woman coming out of a nearby grocery store. They did not know the woman, but they recognized her because she had previously hit them during a protest, Mukadam said.
The group, who had moved together to a car as a “best practice” for safety, tried to ignore the woman until several police officers, who were also on the perimeter of the protest, arrived. While the officers did not disrupt the group, they also did not intervene to stop the woman from screaming. In fact, Mukadam said, the officers instead walked alongside the women as if they were accompanying them as they followed and harassed them.
Mukadam decided to record the scene in front of her, but it was within her legal rights. She says the situation escalated from then on, even though it wasn’t her fault.
“I pull out my phone and go towards them so I can record them working together. I just wanted to be able to document it,” Mukadam said. explains. “And from there, the officer stepped off his bike, stuck out his arm, and pushed me to the ground and into a tree several feet away.”
People around Muqaddam then “rushed to her aid,” some placing themselves between her and the officer and others covering their heads to protect her “from further brutality.” .
“There was no announcement that we were going to make an arrest. So all people around me saw was an adult pushing someone to the ground,” Mukadam said.
Officers then began “grabbing anyone who might come close.” Mukadan said she was one of eight people arrested and held in the back of a police van for “an inordinate amount of time” until her “clothes were literally soaked with sweat.”
“When we said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ they didn’t listen. We said, ‘I’m about to pass out.’ They just slammed the door in our face,” she says.
The eight were then taken to the Orange County Jail, where they were arrested and charged. Mukadam was charged with disorderly conduct, but a police affidavit said he had “falsely claimed that I committed the assault.” [the officer] And it looked like the woman, or I, was about to hit her. ”
defender Orlando police were contacted but did not receive the requested information. The station reported Associated Press It said the protesters had shown a “willingness to physically attack police officers in the process of making arrests and maintaining the peace.”
“The Orlando Police Department has a duty to protect all residents and visitors and is committed to ensuring the safety of all those who choose to peacefully assemble.”
Mukadam calls these claims “fan fiction.”
Several members of Muqaddam’s group were kept in solitary confinement at the prison, where officers later “stripped them naked” for a search.
“We were changing clothes in a room with eight police officers and we were being recorded on cell phone cameras. They pulled Tasers because we asked them to correct the spelling of our names because the paperwork was incorrect. ” said Mukadam. “I’ve been arrested twice now at protests, but they’ve never done anything like that. There’s never been a camera. There was more than one person in the room. This was a whole new level of violation.
All eight people arrested have been released, but the damage is still felt. Mukadam currently suffers from a concussion and “neural damage to his hands from the handcuffs.” The left side of her head was “bruised from a bump” and her left shoulder was “slit”. She said she still suffers from “pain all over her body.”
While it may have seemed like a single woman was responsible for the incident, Mukadam said, “In reality, Orlando police have been repeating this behavior for months and years leading up to this moment.” I’ve come,” he says.
“This repression continues, especially against pro-Palestinian and pro-Lebanese protesters,” she said. “But this is just one example of a larger picture of these tactics happening overseas as well. This brutality is happening overseas as well, and it’s carried over into the prison experience. Sweltering heat. The only difference between us is that in the heat of the back of the prison van, in Gaza they would not be let out.
Orlando police are currently conducting an investigation to determine whether excessive force was used during the arrest. “It’s great that an investigation is being launched, but it’s interesting to have the abuser himself investigate,” Mukadam said.
Muqaddam and her fellow protesters are now “working to ensure all charges are dropped and to ensure all officers are held accountable.” Also Central Florida Queers for Palestine host a bail fund To help the group. Muqaddam says the atrocities they have experienced will not stop them from mobilizing again.
“The purpose of our protest was to make visible the current paging terrorist attacks in Lebanon and the increased shelling in Gaza,” Muqaddam says. “As we plan to host a week of action, we want to continue showing up in the streets, protesting, and making sure we don’t disrupt the crackdown.”
Israel’s war on Gaza killed more than 40,000 people, more than 10,000 of whom were children. AP I will report it. Since Israel began escalating its attacks in Lebanon, 530 people have been killed, including nearly 100 civilians.
For Muqaddam, whose family is Lebanese and whose father and grandfather participated in the resistance, “it’s a generational obligation to keep fighting.”
“When I see my family being blanket bombed, I have no choice but to fight back,” she says. “The longer we sit here and let things happen, the worse the situation will get. Change had to happen yesterday, but if it has to happen today, it will happen today. .”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
