Students and Vets for Peace protest outside the Old Capital Building in Tallahassee, Florida demanding "Make BP Pay!" for its crimes. (Fight Back! News/Fernando Figueroa)

Tallahassee, FL – Thirty students and community members gathered outside the Old State Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, May 12th to protest BP’s big Gulf oil spill. Four rallies took place across Florida in response to the devastating environmental destruction that BP caused in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill crisis has yet to be resolved. Members of Gainesville Area Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) traveled to Tallahassee to show solidarity with the protest, called by the International ANSWER, and organized by the Center for Participant Education (CPE). The students are demanding, “Make BP Pay!”

Local ABC News crews filmed the protesters as they held a giant poster outside the Old State Capitol that read “Seize BP!” and collected signatures condemning British Petroleum for causing the oil leak. The enormous off shore drilling leak has devastated the delicate balance of ocean life in the Gulf. Cars honked their horns in solidarity as they passed by the busy intersection where the protest was held, and the crowd of participants grew as community members joined in throughout the evening.

“I think this protest demonstrates how the community responds to negligent corporations that harm the environment in their quest to turn a profit,” SDS member Justin Wooten said. “We can't allow a company like BP to go on harming the earth – we need to make BP pay for what they've done.”