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The Orlando Visibility Project, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and 50501 Orlando Latinos organized an\u00a0\u201cemergency protest\u201d<\/a> hosted just outside of the Waterford Lakes shopping center at 5 p.m., Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n Several local organizations held an \u201cemergency protest\u201d<\/a>\u00a0just outside the Waterford Lakes shopping center Monday to stand against the ongoing strikes in Iran.<\/p>\n The protest was organized by\u00a0The Orlando Visibility Brigade<\/a>, the Party for Socialism and Liberation<\/a>,\u00a0and 50501 Orlando Latinos<\/a> in response to the increasing hostilities taken by the U.S and its partners.<\/p>\n Caleb Pierre, a UCF alumnus and member of PSL, was one of the organizers for the protest. Pierre said he believed the escalations by the United States were something people needed to take a firmer stand on.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to unite and say no to this war,\u201d Pierre said. \u201cWhat we’re doing to Iran, it’s a part of what the U.S. empire does, but we must always stand against it.\u201d<\/p>\n The protest comes after recent joint strikes against Iran early Saturday morning,\u00a0killing Iran’s supreme leader<\/a>, Ali Khamenei, after 36 years of consecutive reign.\u00a0<\/p>\n The protest also\u00a0follows news that as many as six U.S service members lost their lives, four after their planes were shot down in a\u00a0friendly fire accident over Kuwait and two more from Iranian counterattack debris, according to a statement from Central Command<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S jets themselves were shot down while taking part in the campaign against Iran and were apparently mistargeted by Kuwaiti air defenses, according to The New York Times<\/a>.\u00a0The other two soldiers were killed by initial Iranian attacks in the region,\u00a0according to the two statements.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The protest was spaced out along North Alafaya Trail, with the majority of the group toward the entrance of the shopping center. There were two large bright yellow\u00a0banners spread further down, closer to the road,\u00a0with the first reading \u201cAre We Great Yet?\u201d and the\u00a0other posing the question,\u00a0\u201cR We Safe Yet?\u201d<\/p>\n Esther Powell, a German immigrant, held the first of the two banners.\u00a0She said that she immigrated\u00a0to the United States just after World War II with her father and grandmother, who had just survived the concentration camps set up throughout the country at the time. She said she\u00a0never believed she would watch this happen again, but that if it did, she would do something about it.<\/p>\n “A lot of people think it will be forever, that our democracy is destroyed,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI want to tell them no, Germany could rise up again, we could too.\u201d<\/p>\n Many protestors chanted along with the call-and-response leaders, waved their signs or simply raised their hands to the air.<\/p>\n Though there were no counterprotesters present at Monday’s event, several demonstrations in previous weeks have called on the administration to do something about the violence in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n As previously reported by The Charge, students and community members held a memorial<\/a> in January on campus to honor lives lost in the Iranian government’s response to protests in the country.<\/p>\n Numerous protests have also been held in downtown Orlando in recent months, calling for \u201cregime change\u201d and for the United States to help \u201cfree Iran,\u201d\u00a0as reported by many local news outlets.<\/a>\u00a0Dozens of Central Floridians gathered at City Hall on Sunday<\/a> to celebrate the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite near record-breaking low Florida temperatures, hundreds of people gather in downtown Orlando on Feb. 1 to protest the Iranian government\u2019s violent crackdown against opposition in the country.<\/p>\n Kendal Asbury<\/p>\n Terri Falbo, a 68-year-old Orlando resident, followed her own beat just off the roadside and away from the rest of the group Monday while protesting U.S. involvement. Falbo said she has previously spoken out about students’ right to speak on Palestine<\/a>. She said she\u00a0has protested all her life, starting in the 1960s, and stopped because she truly thought that we were \u201cgetting better,” coming to this protest at the last minute.<\/p>\n \u201cI just feel like we are all becoming so isolated,” Falbo said. “Maybe it\u2019s just me, but that’s why I wanted to be out here. I don’t want to feel that way; nobody should.\u201d<\/p>\n Candy Powell, daughter of Esther Powell and an Orlando native, routinely protests as an active member of Orlando\u2019s Visibility Brigade and said she\u00a0felt this recent round of strikes\u00a0was more about unkept promises from the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n “He ran on this promise, of America First, no more foreign entanglements, and yet here he is entangling us in everything,\u201d Candy Powell said. \u201cThis situation with Iran is so much more complicated than we could even fathom, and ultimately every accusation is an admission.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Students hold memorial in honor of lives lost in Iranian January revolution<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n