“God is going to kick you into Hell,” shouted one man.
“You homophobic, small-minded little bigots, go home!” another man responds.
It was a battle of loudspeakers in Cleveland’s public square between anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim activists and #DumpTrump protesters, debating each other in a place called War Memorial Plaza. Outside the Republican National Convention, it seemed, they were deaf to each other’s message and separated only by an assembled line of police bicycles.
Though far outnumbered, the men claiming to “preach the gospel” stood steady for half an hour, proudly displaying their signs:
“STOP BEING A SINNER AND OBEY JESUS.”
“EVERY REAL MUSLIM IS A JIHADIST!”
Then, suddenly they stopped, packed up and left, to cheers from the crowd, vowing to be back the next day.
Just the beginning
In reality, Monday’s protests were only a preview. Some fear things could turn violent.
“It actually does worry me a bit” said Patrick Panagua, a protester from Chicago, who spoke while marching in solidarity with black, Muslim and LGBT activists.
WATCH: 360-view of protesters in Cleveland
“[Trump’s] rhetoric tries to put groups against each other, and I don’t believe that we necessarily have to have this ‘us against them’ mentality to achieve some sort of peace,” Panagua said, adding that his group’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement does not mean he believes cops lives don’t matter.
Following two recent ambush attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, the mood was tense in Cleveland Public Square and around security barricades downtown, where several hundred protesters marched Monday afternoon.
David Grisham, a Texas-native and member of the anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim protesters, who donned a “Jesus said ‘sin no more’ ’’ shirt, vowed his group would not stay past dark.
“No, no, no,” he said. “It’s hard to preach if a riot breaks out. And then when a riot breaks out, sometimes everybody gets scooped up.”
Still, Grisham says he is not concerned about guns, which can be legally carried openly in Ohio.
“I’m concerned about the heart that carries the gun,” he said. “If you don’t have the morality in your heart, it don’t matter whether you got open carry or no carry!”
Open carry state
Many within Republican ranks, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, have adopted a platform focused on restoring respect for law enforcement, reinforced by a Monday convention theme to “Make America Safe Again.”
But the party, which historically has strongly defended the second amendment and open carry policies, is now faced with a potentially hostile protest environment in a state that allows guns in the public square.
Any area outside the deemed “secure zone” in downtown Cleveland, where firearms are strictly prohibited, is fair game for licensed gun owners to protest – handguns, long guns, or shotguns included – as long as they remain in a holster, visible to the naked eye.
One man, Jesse Gonazlez of Lakewood, Ohio, walked into the square with a long rifle strapped over his back, was quickly surrounded by reporters and proclaimed his right to carry, just a day after a man in Louisiana gunned down three police officers.
A white masked man and self-described Antifa (short for “anti-fascist”) protester, “Shawn Dust,” who wouldn’t give his real name, said his primary concern was the police – 30 of whom he claimed had already profiled him and his friend for his “ghetto” looks.
Dust claimed he was only carrying medical equipment inside the backpack and satchel he carried. He defended his right to carry a black bag if he felt it was necessary, calling his menacing appearance “my freedom of speech.”
Loren Spivack, a conservative author from Massachusetts, saw the heavy police presence in a different light. The police, he said, “by and large” do a good job.
“I always think of this as more of a police convention than a Republican convention,” he said. “You can never tell – bad things happen all over and it’s unfortunate – but there are a bazillion cops here.”
And that makes him feel safe.
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