University of South Florida protestors face court date, felony charges

Share
Three of the arrested protestors join demonstrators outside of Hillsborough County Courthouse // Credit: Chris Young 5/17/2023

Listen:

Three of the demonstrators arrested after a protest at the University of South Florida faced their first court date today. Before their arraignment, they rallied with supporters outside the courthouse.

About 20 demonstrators demanded that charges be dropped for the five protestors arrested during the March 6th protest at the University of South Florida.

“We are not guilty and we are not sorry.”

Laura Rodriguez is one of those arrested. They call themselves the “Tampa Five” and 3 are charged with battery against a law enforcement officer after the protest on USF’s campus. They demanded to speak with the USF President regarding the governor’s attacks on diversity in schools. That’s when protestor Victoria Hinckley says things got physical.

“They started beating students, they started hitting us, they put students in chokeholds, I was pushed up against a wall, people were arrested, and even after we left the building, as they were telling us to, they continued to arrest people outside and continue to brutalize people outside.”

Police said that the group was trespassing, and refused to leave. They claim that one officer suffered minor injuries.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Here are some (mostly) free summer youth programs in St. Petersburg

According to a press release from City of St. Petersburg,...

Talking Animals: Founder of Bear Warriors United discusses the proposed bear hunt and how Floridians can offer their comments on it

Katrina Shadix--founder and executive director of Bear Warriors United recalls...

Richard Corcoran
New College alumni group ‘appalled’ at recent school controversies

Listen: New College of Florida, the small Sarasota school that...

The Scoop: Fri. May 23, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

WMNF headlines including hurricane season, Tampa protests, Pine Island Preserve...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

House of Soul
House of Soul