An Ohio man says he made a decision to visit Cleveland’s Public Square armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun the day before the start of the Republican National Convention to assert his Second Amendment rights.
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Hundreds of people have gathered at a peaceful rally along a major bridge near downtown Cleveland the day before the Republican National Convention gets underway. Ramped up anxieties following another catastrophic terror attack on French soil present another challenge to a police department now under federal oversight after the Justice Department determined in 2014 that it had engaged in “a pattern or practice of the use of excessive force”.
A DOJ investigation found a pattern of “unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force”, retaliatory force with “Tasers and chemical spray and fists” and the “employment of poor and risky tactics”, among a slew of other conclusions. Running through Wednesday, the 107th NAACP convention will include a long list of speakers, workshops and entertainment.
Cleveland police bomb squad technician Sgt. Tim Maffo-Judd demonstrates a Remotec F5A explosive ordnance device robot during a demonstration of police capabilities near the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 14, 2016.
Loomis added that the union will also call on Cleveland’s police leadership to change its tactics for protecting the city. Monday’s focus will be to “make America safe again”.
A DOJ spokesperson told the NewsHour in an email that the department “would remain actively involved” during the rollout of the court-approved consent decree to amend police practices. Three officers have been killed in an ambush near police headquarters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday, with four more injured.
OH law allows legal gun owners to openly carry firearms.
Security is already tight here and the convention is going forward as planned.
Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) has rejected a Cleveland Police request that he take executive action to ban openly carried firearms during at the Republican Convention this week.
“Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws as suggested”, a Kasich spokesperson wrote. With the exception of a small “secure zone” inside and around the Quicken Loans Arena, residents, delegates and protesters are legally permitted to walk around the city – including within its 1.7 square mile regulated “event zone” – any firearm not explicitly banned by the state. Dan Williams, a spokesperson for the office of Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson, said about 60 percent of the figure was earmarked for “safety and security forces”.
Officials of the NAACP opened their annual convention in Cincinnati, just two days ahead of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “We demand law and order”, he said.
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“Anybody that has an open-carry gun, we are going to look at and we are going to look at them very, very hard”, Loomis said.
