‘It feels like a betrayal’: 87-year-old Gainesville veteran discusses viral arrest while protesting in D.C.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Amid nationwide protests against the Trump administration, footage of an 87-year-old Gainesville veteran being taken off of his walker and shuffled towards a police van is going viral on social media.
“I don’t wanna make more of it than it is,” Air Force veteran John Spitzberg said about the video of him being arrested. “All I knew is I had to be with my brothers and sisters who were being pummeled. That’s all I knew, that they were being pummeled.”
Spitzberg, who lives in a Gainesville retirement home, was visiting Washington D.C. for a work reunion party. Even though he has trouble walking, Spitzberg spent his Saturday on the front steps of the Capitol building with dozens of his fellow veterans.
Leaders of the groups Veterans for Peace and About Face organized protests outside of the Supreme Court Saturday, June 14, coinciding with nation-wide protests against President Donald Trump’s military parade celebrating both his and the U.S. military’s birthday. Dozens of veterans showed up to wave banners outside of the nation’s highest court.
RELATED: People in North Central Florida protest President Donald Trump during Nationwide ‘No Kings’ protest
Spitzberg, a Cold War veteran and longtime member of Veterans for Peace, was at the protest Saturday. He recalled that some protestors broke off from the main group to sit on the front steps of the Capitol building, right across the street. Shortly after the group arrived, police cars swarmed the group and began “manhandling” protesters, according to Spitzberg- he described U.S. capitol police officers as a “swarm of locusts” that descended on his fellow veterans.
“I was looking at this, and watching this,” Spitzberg explained, “and I don’t know exactly why, but I removed the barricade in front of me, and said to myself, ‘I need to be with my brothers and sisters’- I started going with my walker.”
After crossing the police barricade, officers told Spitzberg he would need to turn around or be arrested. The veteran kept walking towards his “brothers and sisters”, and became one of around 60 protestors arrested.
WNG Reporter Carolina Lumetta recorded police officers taking Spitzberg off of his walker, putting him in handcuffs, and slowly walking him towards a police van.
RELATED: 87-year-old Gainesville veteran arrested at U.S. Capitol during protest
Protestors can be heard shouting “shame, shame” while capitol police put Spitzberg in handcuffs. He says he wasn’t trying to make a statement or rile up a crowd by crossing the barrier; he says he just wanted to be with his fellow veterans on the steps of the Capitol.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know what people were saying I didn’t hear anything,” Spitzberg said when asked about the chanting. “I just knew that I had to get to those people that were being pummeled.”
Spitzberg expressed disappointment that he and his veterans were being arrested.
“It feels like a betrayal, Spitzberg said, “of the Americans and other people who served this country for the purpose of keeping democracy, freedom.”
Spitzberg said he hopes that viewers of that video focus less on him, and more on the message of his protest.
“I’m really not the issue. The issue is what President Trump is doing,” Spitzberg said. “I’m not a leader there. I don’t wanna be a leader.”
Spitzberg says that he is against the Trump administration, saying he despises fascism and “anyone who reports to be a savior for the rest of the world.” He also raised concerns over the cost of Trump’s military parade.
He’s spent years in Ukraine, Romania and Vietnam helping people scarred by warfare in the years after his service with the U.S. Air Force.
Spitzberg and the other protestors arrested Saturday are facing charges of crossing a police line and ‘crowding, obstructing, and incommoding.’
“I’m no hero,” Spitzberg said. “I’m just another person on the street who believes it’s important to be there.”
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Copyright 2025 WCJB. All rights reserved.
