Calm start for convention protests

CLEVELAND – The Republican National Convention opened in relative calm on Monday as protesters took to the streets to demonstrate for and against presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

A “Stop Trump” march snaked peacefully through the downtown streets on Monday afternoon, accompanied by Cleveland police on bicycles and officers from a range of out-of-town departments lining the route. Marchers said they were pleased that the police took a generally hands-off approach. 

{mosads}The marchers, who filled the street for a short city block, chanted slogans from “Black lives matter” to “Donald Trump is an ass, here comes the working class.” 

Christian Lewis, 18, came from New York City to the march, and was one of several who held signs saying “I ain’t voting until black lives matter.”

“No officers didn’t jump in or nothing, no aggressive actions, so I enjoyed myself,” he said after the march. 

The shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge, La., over the weekend further heightened fears of violence at the convention. Local and federal law enforcement officials are out in full force in downtown Cleveland, with groups of officers present on virtually every corner and block. 

Heightening the security fears, Ohio is an open-carry state, which means that firearms can be legally carried into the protest zone. 

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams on Monday said the Executive Steering Committee for the convention, headed by the Secret Service, had discussed suspending the law around the convention site with Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s (R) legal team in Columbus. But they reached the conclusion that the governor did not have the authority to take such a step.

A few people were spotted on Monday carrying weapons. A group of at least three men carried pistols on their hips at a pro-Trump rally that brought out several hundred people Monday to a park on the Cuyahoga River, where another woman was spotted with a concealed pistol under her shirt.

“We believe very strongly in law enforcement and we’re going be here to stand here with them in the event that we’re needed,” said Chris Cox, founder of Bikers for Trump, who is from South Carolina and estimated that 10,000 bikers would be rolling through Cleveland at the convention.

Cox said he wasn’t personally carrying a gun, saying that bikers would allow law enforcement to handle protesters. Still, he said the bikers would defend themselves if necessary.

“The blue-collar guy and the middle class are the reason that we’re here, and we want to bring jobs back to America,” he said.

Radio host Alex Jones and Trump ally Roger Stone, a co-organizer of the event, were featured speakers at the pro-Trump rally, which included a young woman taking the stage to sing a song with a chorus of “Make America Great Again” and panning “political correctness.”

“The Hillary Clinton you see and hear on TV is not the real Hillary Clinton,” Stone told the crowd. “Hillary Clinton is a short-tempered, foul-mouthed, greedy, bipolar, mentally unbalanced criminal.”

Stone told the crowd he was late because he was at meetings at the Westin with”members of the Trump staff.” 

Jones led a chant of “Hillary for prison,” pointing out a few dozen shirts in the crowd with the phrase and saying the phrase was a top search term, ahead of “Brexit” and “Pokemon Go.”

“We’re even giving Nintendo a run for their money now!” the outspoken radio personality said. “Think about that, and think about that long and hard.”

One man in a “Hillary for Prison” shirt came from Minnesota to the pro-Trump rally, and sold small American flags to other attendees for $1, which he said was helping pay for expenses on the trip.

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward, who is challenging Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also spoke at the rally, touching on topics such as illegal immigration and calling to “mix the mortar to fix the border.” Asked later if she had endorsed Trump, she said, “When people ask me I say, yes, I support him, he’s our nominee.”

“Border security is national security,” she said in a brief interview with The Hill. “I think we do need a physical barrier in many of the places. It might not be a giant wall. It might be a fence, it might be underground sensors, we need to utilize technology to the fullest.”

Law enforcement officials from at least seven states, as far away as highway patrol from California and Florida, watched over convention thoroughfares and lined the route of the anti-Trump march. Several police helicopters circled overhead, agents stood with binoculars on the roof of the convention hall, and officials monitored the waterfront from boats.

Cleveland drivers had to learn to contend with street closures, with some stopping confusedly at intersections and rows of temporary black fencing cordoning off areas protected by the Secret Service. 

But there was little tension as the anti-Trump protesters marched. Some passersby in suits and wearing convention credentials occasionally stopped to take pictures.