Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams has been on the scene to help defuse some of the raucous protests during this week’s Republican National Convention.
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Member of the media crowd around as protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention.
A law enforcement officer tries extinguish a burning American flag, Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in Cleveland, during the third day of the Republican convention.
Police and protesters fall to ground during demonstration, Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in Cleveland, during the third day of the Republican convention.
Aside from the flag-burning incident, most protests went relatively smoothly despite concerns that the nomination of divisive Republican nominee Donald Trump would spur rowdy demonstrators.
Police officers are separating protest groups gathered in Cleveland’s downtown Public Square.
Authorities counted only 24 convention-related arrests, a far smaller number than some had predicted.
Just as protests started in Cleveland’s Public Square, most were squelched by police.
A group calling itself the Revolution Club sent out a press release earlier saying that Joey Johnson, a “notorious flag burner and revolutionary communist”, would conduct civil disobedience in Cleveland.
Police arrested 17 people Wednesday after a melee broke out during a flag-burning in the streets outside the Republican National Convention.
While the city self-insures its own property and employees, the extra policy will apply to any damage of public property, out-of-town police and their equipment, and any other legal claims made by people arrested during the four-day GOP convention.
Police have been on alert in the OH city, and security was ramped up dramatically for the week of the Republican convention in the wake of the recent killings of police officers in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Some of the images have been lighthearted, like when police showed sunbathers “chillin” lakeside, but officers also have been broadcasting the faces of many protesters and their signs and showing the aftermath of protests in areas where the public, protesters and reporters have been forced to leave. Williams said he hoped a week that largely saw people posing for pictures with officers rather than fighting with them will underscore an improved relationship between city officers and the people they police.
Organizers of some of the rallies and marches also said fears of violence kept many people away.
About 10 more minutes passed before the crowd was under control.
“We had big groups that said they were coming in that got dwindled down to nothing”, said Larry Bresler, organizer of a Stop Poverty Now rally. Cleveland police bike patrols monitored the demonstrators closely as they walked and chanted, “America was never great”, “The whole darn system is guilty as he$#”!, “Black Lives Matter” and “The people united will never be defeated!”
A short while after the balloons fell, marking the end of the week, long event crews were already starting to dismantle and remove the fences and barricades that lined ninth street and closed off parts of the city around the Quicken Loans Arena and the Convention Center on Lakeside.
The Cleveland department relied heavily on about 300 officers on bicycles to keep protesters in line and separate hostile groups before they came to blows, a tactic that seemed to work time and again. The America First Unity Rally occupied Settler’s Landing in the Flats Monday afternoon.
But after 2-plus days of RNC events and protests, there have been far fewer arrests than expected.
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Glenn Wilcoxson, of Clearwater, Florida, who spent the week selling Trump shirts, hats and stickers, said he didn’t know what to expect given what was on the news beforehand.
