JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An activist group held a protest Wednesday evening to condemn the arrests of three people following a disturbance at Tuesday night’s Jacksonville City Council meeting.
The Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network protested outside the Duval County jail to demand the “immediate” release of two of the three people arrested, who as of Wednesday morning, remained in custody.
On Wednesday morning, a judge said there was not enough probable cause to charge Conor Cauley, 29, with resisting with violence.
Cauley was one of three people arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday night.
Cauley is still facing a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon (a pocket knife). His bond was set at $1,503 and he was released on his own recognizance.
Two women are facing misdemeanor charges of resisting an officer without violence. News4JAX is not naming the women because of the nature of their charges.
The Jacksonville Community Action Committee said members of the JPSN were the ones arrested.
“We DEMAND they be released, that these charges be dropped, and we will not stop until they are!” JPSN wrote in an Instagram post.
A video posted on Instagram captured the interaction as officers tried to get the trio to leave Council chambers.
Cauley is holding a cellphone and filming as one of the women is being moved by an officer.
The officer briefly grips Cauley’s arm to push him back out of the way so he can move the woman along the aisle of chairs, and Cauley uses his free hand to quickly take hold of the officer’s wrist and push the officer’s arm away.
Instantly, the officer grabs Cauley behind his neck and pulls him forward, flipping him over a row of chairs and knocking back the woman he was originally escorting out of the room.
The officer holds Cauley on the ground behind the row of chairs, surrounded by other officers, as the two women are led out of the room. Once the officer has Cauley on the ground in handcuffs, officers haul him up and march him out of the room, as well.
It’s unclear at what point Cauley was searched and the knife was found. The video does not show him displaying the weapon before the officer takes him to the ground.
“JSO respects the right to freedom of speech and the right to protest; however, the actions of the three individuals in custody constituted a clear violation of the law,” the sheriff’s office said.
News4JAX reached out to the mayor’s office asking if any changes will be made to security in response to the incident, since one individual was able to get inside with a knife.
The mayor’s office sent the following statement from Mayor Donna Deegan:
We all have freedom of speech. The time to exercise that right is during the public comment period of City Council meetings. The words we choose matter. Civil discourse should be just that. Civil. If we truly want to solve problems, we have to find a way to speak respectfully to each other.
A small “credit card” knife went undetected in a wallet during the standard security screening process for last night’s City Council meeting. Moving forward, we have directed First Coast Security to train their officers on this style of concealed weapon, and to conduct extra inspections of all personal items going into the Council Chambers.
We are also conducting a full security review for City Hall – including potential equipment upgrades, staffing changes, and vendor options – as we get closer to the current security vendor contract expiring in September 2025.
Mayor Donna Deegan
