East Valley Organizations Coordinate Series of 7 Bridge Protests

February 7, 2026

Mesa, Arizona – It has been just over one year since Donald Trump took office. In that time, his administration has censored the media, attacked science, suppressed voters, started an illegal war without congressional approval, and sent a secret police force into communities to take people of color. “These are signs of fascism,” said Nathan Taylortaft, co-director of East Valley Unite, “It actually is fascism, and people need to recognize that so they take action.” 

That’s why East Valley Unite, along with several partner organizations including Gilbert Good Trouble, Common Defense Arizona, The Arizona Maverick, and Elizabeth Lee For Congress, organized a series of 7 protests on bridges over the 60 freeway, covering every bridge from Mesa Drive to 32nd Street. East Valley Unite says they are aiming to be more efficient in broadcasting their message by holding large signs of letters to spell out messages over the freeway. They call this type of action a bridge brigade, and the 7 back-to-back ones in Mesa formed one long message. “If it’s in your face, you can’t ignore it,” said Taylortaft, “and that’s what we aim to do with these bridge brigades.” 

The first bridge had a message that introduced each of the following messages as a sign of fascism, and the final bridge included a call to action, and the website “AZBridge.org“. In two hours, the website gained over 400 hits, and half of those got involved with East Valley Unite alone. “This is about as efficient as it can get,” said Taylortaft, “and there is significant interest in more actions like this,” he said, pointing to the fact that over 100 people signed up in the first several days after the event was announced. “There will be more in the future.”

This was part of an ongoing campaign by East Valley Unite, called the Arizona Bridge Brigade.