Thread: Two officers assaulted, 17 arrested after flag burning protest at Republican conventi

Two officers assaulted, 17 arrested after flag burning protest at Republican convention

July 20, 2016 4:18 pm



CLEVELAND -- Two police officers were assaulted and a man lit a flag and himself on fire Wednesday in a protest outside the Republican National Convention, police said.

Cleveland police announced 17 people were arrested and the two officers suffered minor injuries related to flag burning protest near East 4th Street and Prospect Avenue. Firefighters extinguished the flames and there were no serious injuries related to the fire, police said.

Protests had been peaceful until then. A spokesman for the city said there were no arrests before 3 p.m. Wednesday and there had been just five during the week until the flag burning protest, bringing the total to 22 for the convention.

The protests in downtown Cleveland were loud and strange earlier on the convention’s third day. The event attracted a man in a diaper, another with a sex doll and a hundred people holding cloths painted like a brick wall.

The cloths briefly blocked a convention entrance and were etched with the words “WALL OFF TRUMP.” It was a reference to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexican-American border to block illegal immigrants from entering the country. Surrounded by dozens of police officers, the protesters eventually moved to the area’s public square, where they spoke and sang in English and Spanish.

“Trump is preaching a rhetoric of hate and a rhetoric of fear,” said Martha Neuman, a 20-year-old Washington D.C. resident who was part of the demonstration.

“We have always been a country of immigrants. We have always have been a country that’s been a safe refuge for people fleeing persecution, violence and harm.”

Neuman is a member of Code Pink, a women-led grassroots organization that advocates for peace and social justice. She’s been protesting all week and said the only clash she saw was between neo-Nazis and radio host Alex Jones, “which was really intense.”

Trump supporters sprinkled the public square and didn’t seem to mind the protesters. They held signs criticizing likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her handling of the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, her use of a private email server while secretary of state and other scandals that have dogged the Clintons over the years.

“It’s beautiful,” Trump supporter Julian Raven, a 45-year-old alternate delegate from New York, said of the protests. “It’s amazing, and at the end of it, no blood.

Not like other countries where they just fight...Thank god for the police officers maintaining sanity because everyone should be able to share their views. That’s the beauty of our country.”

Asked about Trump’s proposed wall and controversial comments about Hispanic immigrants, Raven said Trump wants legal immigration and will “get people to go out and come back legally. Help the people that want to work. He’ll do it. He’s a kind man, but he’s also a tough man.”

It was an eccentric environment outside the convention, where news outlets broadcast live outside, a man carried a sex doll with a Clinton mask, and a diaper-wearing man sang with a guitar-playing man who donned a dress, lipstick and wig.

“We don’t think (Republican vice presidential nominee) Mike Pence has gone far enough,” began the wigged man who went by the name Mariana Path. “We basically think babies should be paying for their own funerals.”

“I’m ready to pay for my own abortion,” added the man wearing the diaper, who said his name was Baby Path.

Mariana Path offered a reporter a chance to kick the baby, but the reporter declined.



http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/t...a8aab9b29.html

A law enforcement officer takes a protester into custody outside Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, during the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016. (S.A. Miller/The Washington Times)

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Updated: 9:28 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Anti-Trump protesters clashed with police here Wednesday outside the Republican National Convention, and 17 protesters had been arrested by early evening.

About a dozen protesters burned an American flag and chanted: “Two, four, six, eight, America was never great.”

When they refused to move away from an entry point to Quicken Loans Arena, police moved in, including police on bikes, horses and a team in riot gear.

“This is what a police state looks like,” yelled one of the protesters. Others jeered “Blue lives murder!”

The police attempt to subdue the protesters was frustrated by a throng of media and other onlookers, but the melee also prevented some delegates from getting into the arena for business. Police eventually pushed back the crowd and cleared the street in front of the entry point to the arena.

Police attempted to extinguish the burning flag, but the demonstrators immediately complained that the fire retardant, which can cause irritation to human flesh, was pepper spray.

“Burn that rag! Burn that rag!” supporters of the group yelled.

The protesters wore black T-shirts emblazoned with: “BA speaks. Revolution — nothing less.” The shirts refer to a movie about 1960s radical Bob Avakian, who is chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party and continues to lead a protest movement.

Bikers for Trump leader Chris Cox was at the scene attempting to assist police. He said the protesters were calling the police “pigs” and yelling “death to police” during the confrontation, which came in the wake of two deadly attacks on the police, claiming eight officers’ lives in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“This is a lot of craziness,” Mr. Cox said.

According to Cleveland police, two officers sustained minor injuries, one of which included a bleeding elbow. Those injuries mean charges against arrestees could include felonious assault on a police officer.

Still, Wednesday’s 17 arrests bring the total to 22 for the entire convention, much less than what police had feared based on previous presidential-nominating conventions, plus such events as trade gatherings.

“Right now, I think so far, so good,” Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters Wednesday night. “We’re still out there, we’re still vigilant to make sure we finish this day, and the last day tomorrow, on a positive note.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...tside-rnc-4-a/

I saw this as it happened. There were less than 2 dozen "protesters" and the writing on their shirts was in SPANISH demanding revolucion! MSM sensationalism at it's best. I actually have no sympathy for the fool that set himself on fire and I hope that the people that assaulted the cops get sent up Felony River. JMO

LOCK 'EM UP!!