Police did not identify any of those arrested Wednesday.
Advertisement
Cleveland Division of Police’s public information officer Jennifer Ciaccia said that syringes would be banned within the convention’s perimeter to quell any lingering concerns.
The incidents began a little before 4 p.m., when a group of Black Bloc activists began to assemble outside the convention entrance at Fourth Street and Prospect in downtown Cleveland in anticipation of a planned burning of the US flag.
During five days of mostly tame demonstrations, police made just 23 arrests, surprisingly few compared with conventions in recent years in New York, Minnesota and Florida, all where arrest totals numbered in the hundreds. But such congenial moments are constantly interrupted by protests – and Williams repeatedly has gone into the center of the scrums.
Ladder trucks that had been at fire stations at 3101 Lakeside Avenue and 3636 Woodland lofted a single American flag as a backdrop for some of the photos and the fire fighters also joined the mayor for pictures.
Shouting matches and scuffles among the groups came to a halt Thursday once they were outnumbered by hundreds of police officers who streamed into the square.
“Whatever they tried to do with the flag, as we were trying to extinguish it and they were trying to keep it away, their trousers leg caught on fire”, said Williams.
He took charge Wednesday when a flag-burning turned into a melee.
Police said Thursday a Georgia state trooper was treated and released, and a Cleveland officer was still being treated. The man assaulted the officer, and “things escalated from there”, Williams said. He said the city expected the crowds and were ready.
Police issued a dispersal order for everyone, including reporters Wednesday in the area around Quicken Loans Arena.
This was the most active and turbulent day of protests in Cleveland.
Multiple people with their hands cuffed behind them were detained by police.
Cleveland police union president Steve Loomis said the community has backed officers, bringing food and drink donations to the union hall on West 58 Street. In Public Square, convention goers and the public mingled with pro- and anti-Trump protesters, while a steady stream of speakers took to a public PA system to air grievances ranging from police brutality to immigration and the environment.
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was one of several officers checking delegates’ credentials before letting them through a barrier created by bicycle officers.
There were the dogged communists, of course, who held daily marches and rallies at Public Square, a sprawling park in downtown that police had designated as a free speech zone.
“God hates wicked whores that support abortion”, yelled the man with the bullhorn.
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was in the middle of it again, riding with a bike patrol unit in the square.
“We’ve chose to be still and observe”, McCoy said, adding that he doubted convention protests would change relations between minorities and local police.
In an nearly carnival-like scene, state troopers from IN played ping pong with people IN the square.
Warm temperatures in the low 80s may be playing a role in keeping people away.
There were no signs of trouble.
“We should embrace diversity and not talk badly about immigrants or woman and show leadership”, Halsa said, “Trump should stick to his reality TV show”. Not like the other people who stay in the office.
The symptoms were first reported July 14 as logistics members arrived at a hotel about an hour west of Cleveland.
USA political conventions typically are protest magnets, and the Republican National Convention that nominated Donald Trump as its presidential candidate after a bitter primary campaign had been seen as a major draw.
Anti-government and anti-racism protesters are set to burn an American flag Wednesday at an undisclosed location.
He’s also tried to talk to protesters and cool down situations.
Advertisement
Officers on Tuesday used bicycles to wall off intersections and for the first time during the convention ordered demonstrators to disperse under the threat of arrest.
