{"id":57138,"date":"2026-03-01T00:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/hands-off-iran-rally-fills-part-of-downtown-jacksonville-to-protest-attacks-on-iran\/01\/03\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:45:33","slug":"hands-off-iran-rally-fills-part-of-downtown-jacksonville-to-protest-attacks-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/hands-off-iran-rally-fills-part-of-downtown-jacksonville-to-protest-attacks-on-iran\/01\/03\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Hands off Iran:&#8217; Rally fills part of downtown Jacksonville to protest attacks on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The situation in Iran has led to some Jacksonville activists taking to the streets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Indivisible Jax held an &#8220;emergency rally&#8221; Saturday to condemn the attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Definitely shocked,&#8221; said rally organizer Ashley McKenzie. &#8220;Feeling a lot of heartache because a lot of innocent lives were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When McKenzie saw what happened in Iran early Saturday morning, she went right to work helping to organize a rally to protest it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe\u2019re here to shed light on that and oppose it in any way we can and encourage people to get involved,&#8221; said McKenzie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mayordeeganjax\/posts\/pfbid07aDL4Yp5F96Jd5cvTqeaV6AbyEKxHaQbYsxUHPiTL8NGv4oBKevePTF2TvU7hg5Ul\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:weighed in on the attacks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">weighed in on the attacks<\/a>, posting:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>\u201cPraying for our service members who are in harm\u2019s way in Iran, their loved ones here at home, and our neighbors who have family in the region.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Congressman John Rutherford <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RepRutherfordFL\/posts\/pfbid0G7hZHHgf6T7sF9VoYojqtvPUZXTjFTjMzBEnqExeX9dNeXU21xpEZWCYPoUa2zndl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:also shared his thoughts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">also shared his thoughts<\/a>, with a post saying in part:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>\u201cTens of thousands of Iranian people have been violently murdered by the Iranian regime for seeking freedom and basic human rights.\u00a0<\/em><em>It\u2019s clear: this evil regime seeks to kill and must be obliterated.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">McKenzie says it\u2019s no coincidence the rally was held in front of Rutherford\u2019s downtown Jacksonville office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe see clearly that\u2019s not the case, and it\u2019s quite clearly the opposite who the aggressor is in this situation,&#8221; said McKenzie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Not everyone at the rally shared the same sentiment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe tried the diplomatic route,&#8221; said counter-protester Chris Smith. &#8220;We tried to be peaceful. Sometimes, you have to make a show of strength. I want to see the people of Iran free, ultimately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">McKenzie is hoping, if nothing else, the rally opens some eyes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cGet out in the streets and organize,&#8221; said McKenzie. &#8220;Find an organization to get in touch with in order to educate yourselves and the community, basically hold our government accountable for the actions they commit in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">JSO brought several officers in cars, on bicycles and even on horseback to keep the peace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They did intervene at one point when there was a bit of a scene involving the counter-protester and a group of the protesters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One protester told <em>First Coast News<\/em> he was detained and charged with battery without injury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/hands-off-iran-rally-fills-043026347.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The situation in Iran has led to some Jacksonville activists taking to the streets. Indivisible Jax held an &ldquo;emergency rally&rdquo; Saturday to<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/hands-off-iran-rally-fills-part-of-downtown-jacksonville-to-protest-attacks-on-iran\/01\/03\/2026\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/cv\/apiv2\/social\/images\/yahoo_default_logo-1200x1200.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}