Protesters have spilled into the streets in downtown Cleveland after a few brief skirmishes broke out just blocks from Republican National Convention.
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Backers as well as opponents of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have expressed concerns about the prospect of weapons being carried in open sight around the convention site.
John Kasich rebuffed a request by the head of the Cleveland police union to suspend that law during the convention, saying he doesn’t have the authority to “arbitrarily” alter laws and constitutional rights.
The main sources of revenue are expected to be hotel rooms booked, money spent on food and transportation, as well as sales of merchandise associated with the RNC – hats, shirts, stuffed animals and even political prophylactics.
Williams said he was happy to see the demonstrations had remained generally peaceful for the first three days of the convention before telling reporters that he had to run.
“Things that happen around the country and around the world do affect to some degree how we respond here in Cleveland”, Chief Calvin Williams said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation”.
But a threatened flag-burning later Wednesday had potential to fuel the tensions outside the Republican National Convention.
Hours after dispersing the crowd, Cleveland police tweeted that the officers had been punched and pushed during the brief melee.
Earlier Tuesday, police surrounded downtown’s Public Square to keep protesters away from each other.
A protester tried to set an American flag on fire, and in the process caught his pant leg on fire.
Williams says he plans to show up wherever there are “issues” in Cleveland during the convention.
Minutes later, more officers on bicycles formed a line to separate a conservative religious group from a communist-leaning organization carrying a sign that read, “America Was Never Great”.
The other nervous moment came when a group of Trump supporters squared off with an anti-Trump group.
Pushing and shoving broke out, and police quickly had several group members on the ground in handcuffs.
Later, the woman was arrested, as people chanted “Let her go!”
Security forces, including horse-mounted police, closed ranks around the protesters, and detained people were seen kneeling with their hands behind their backs.
“As a police officer I am very much in favor of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, but in a situation like this I don’t see what good it does to open carry”, Morris said near the convention hall, referring to the USA constitutional amendment that protects the right to keep and bear arms. He was then arrested for assaulting an officer, Williams said during an evening news conference, after trying to bat away police seeking to douse the flames. Previously, five people had been arrested in three different incidents.
Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul from NY, has courted controversy with his calls to build a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border and restrict immigration by Muslims, steps he describes as necessary to protect Americans’ security.
A half-dozen Trump supporters defended Trump from attacks by immigration activists.
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“We want to wall off the hate of Trump”, said Tim Chavez of Columbus. The one reported arrest as Cleveland police and law enforcement officers from across the US maintained a visible presence downtown.
