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Cleveland Bans Soapboxes and Sleeping Bags, Not Guns, Near Republican Convention
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Intercept
Posted: June 26th, 2016
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/22/cleveland-gears-up-for-r...
Anyone venturing into a 3.3-square-mile event zone surrounding next months Republican National Convention will be prohibited from carrying tennis balls, tape, rope, bike locks, sleeping bags, or any object they could stand on to rise above the crowd and speak. But if they have a license, theyll be permitted to openly carry real guns, including assault weapons. The restrictions imposed on the large event zone drawn around Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena ... have earned the city a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Ohio and widespread criticism. Its the first time Ive gone to a protest where theres been so much talk of guns and the fact that people can carry them legally, said [activist] John Penley. They throw pro- and anti-Trump protesters together, and throw in the fact that maybe people will be carrying weapons. It seems like what they want to do is increase the chances for conflict. Cleveland received a $50 million federal grant to gear up for the RNC. The city has obtained ... 10,000 sets of flex cuffs; nonlethal munitions like bean bag pellets; pepper spray; 2,000 sets of riot gear; 2,000 retractable steel batons; 3.7 miles worth of steel barriers; as well as ... video surveillance equipment, laptops, night vision devices, and 16 Pointer Illuminator Aiming Lasers, which a technology retailer describes as being used for night direct-fire aiming and illumination. The convention center itself is under the control of the Secret Service, which has imposed a separate set of restrictions, including a ban on weapons.
Note: New York City in 2014 agreed to pay $18 million to settle lawsuits brought by hundreds of people illegally arrested at the 2004 RNC. Non-lethal weapons including a noise gun originally developed for military use may be used at this year's RNC in Cleveland.
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