Pair of marches planned in Cleveland for start of RNC

“We have partnered with outside law enforcement agencies from all across the country for support, for staffing reasons”, said Jennifer Ciaccia, Sergeant of Public Affairs for Cleveland Division of Police.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said Sunday during ABC’s “This Week” that city officials “aren’t strangers to unrest and demonstrations and protests” and insisted that the city is prepared for an event that could draw tens of thousands of people. Yesbick, who will also take to selling his merchandise at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, said he anticipates selling out in one day.

Kim Snyder, a non-denominational minister from nearby Parma, Ohio, wearing a “Free Hugs” T-shirt, said that the recent attacks on police in Baton Rouge and Dallas drove her out to the demonstrations to “pray for” the police officers on duty and to help “deescalate” any tension.

Williams said, “We’ll make sure people stay within the parameters of what is allowed and what is not”.

In an interview with 60 minutes, Donald Trump suggested demonstrators leave their guns at home.

The greeters are everywhere, many of them volunteers, wearing white shirts and red caps. But some major corporate sponsors have pulled out.

6am: NY state Sen.

Still, security at the RNC in Cleveland is at unprecedented levels. Police on bike and on foot formed lines to keep pockets of protesters separated. Two protestors carried a papier-mâché pig with a Trump-like mop of hair atop a mock silver platter garnished with dollar bills.

Steve Thacker, a 57-year-old information technology engineer from Westlake, Ohio, asked when someone criticized his decision to walk through Cleveland with the rifle. But there was no sign anyone brought guns to the first protest march, held Saturday. “But we’ve been planning around it”, Larson said. But he said people have a legal responsibility not to menace anyone with those weapons – or be perceived as being menacing.

The head of the Cleveland police union called on the governor of OH to declare a state of emergency and to suspend open-carry gun rights during the Republican national convention, following the killing of three officers in Louisiana on Sunday. Across the mile-long art deco Hope Memorial Bridge, which spans the old industrial banks of the Cuyahoga River and links the west side to downtown, they stood Sunday afternoon in silence, hand in hand, in a meditation for peace dubbed “Circle the City with Love”. The convention, however fraught with dangers at a time of national insecurity, could be a boon for a city once derided as the Mistake on the Lake.

“I didn’t put too much thought into it. I just knew I could do it”, said Gonzalez, a Trump supporter.

There were no arrests, police said, despite several tense moments that saw officers step in between protesters pushing and shouting at each other during some of the biggest, most raucous gatherings in downtown Cleveland since the four-day convention began on Monday. There is a sense of anxiety on the streets outside Quicken Loans Arena, where the Republican National Convention will be this week.