Beacon Journal reporters Doug Livingston, Stephanie Warsmith, Malcolm Abram and Rich Heldenfels were in Cleveland Sunday to cover the opening festivities for the Republican National Convention.
Below are developments from them and Beacon Journal wire services.
6:20 p.m.
Ken Nwadike, founder of the West Coast based Free Hugs organization flew into Cleveland with a plan to attend many demonstrations and protests with the aim of helping to “keep the peace.”
Nwadike said he has been specifically asked by officers at past protests to step in and help defuse tense situations. His expectations for the RNC: “Not good.”
“I expect there will be trouble. I just hope nobody gets murdered. That would be the end. You can’t come back from death,” Nwadike said.
—Macolm Abram
6:15 p.m.
The crowd at the Keep the Promise concert wasn’t huge, but it was eclectic. Families of all colors and configurations and age ranges mingled with aged hippies and a pair of drag nuns in makeup. Non-profits including AHF, Free Hugs and the AIDS task force of greater Cleveland handed out branded graft and informational awareness pamphlets.
Contemporary gospel duo & reality TV stars Mary Mary reminded attendees that “we’re all angry, but the Bible says be angry at the sin, not the sinner! Drawing cheers.
—Malcolm Abram
5:30 p.m.
As a parade of anti-RNC marchers made their way eastward toward downtown, people stopped to watch, among them delegates and their families.
Jan McMahan, whose husband is alternate delegate from Arkansas, said she heard what was going on, so she walked down to see.
“Its sad they have to do this, but it’s a free country,” she said. “They can stand up for what they believe.” She said she hopes no one gets hurt given what’s going on around the country.
Marching with the group were representatives of the DC Peace Team, a non-partisan non-violence organization that attempts to diffuse tense situations.
Team member John Reuwer from Harrisburg, Pa., said, “The idea is to keep everybody safe.”
Meanwhile, as some marchers changed anti-police slogans, police with bicycles were riding and walking along with the parade.
—Stephanie Warsmith
4:40 p.m.
Hundreds of people gathered at a peaceful rally along a major bridge near downtown Cleveland the day before the Republican National Convention gets underway.
The “Circle the City With Love” event began with a Dixieland-style band leading participants onto the bridge on Sunday afternoon.
Once people lined the entire bridge on either side, they held hands and waited in silence for several minutes.
After an air horn signaled the end of the vigil, the participants, including several children, walked back off the bridge.
At about the same time, a protest group began its march toward downtown, beginning east of Cleveland State University and headed toward the museum area, where all RNC delegates have been invited to assemble later for a reception.
—Stephanie Warsmith and the Associated Press
3:30 p.m.
The Cleveland Police union asked Gov. John Kasich to suspend Ohio’s laws allowing the carrying of weapons around the RNC, according to several local and national news organizations.
Kasich responded that it is not in his power to suspend the law.
3:10 p.m.
From Twitter: Made it to @RNC_official media parking after dogs sniffed my car and secret service looked under my hood w flashlights. Wow!
— Stephanie Warsmith
2:30 p.m.
An Ohio man says he decided 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.
A group called Northeast Ohio Open Carry had planned a noon rally Sunday in downtown Cleveland, but only 57-year-old Steve Thacker showed up with guns. He drew attention from news media as Cleveland police officers milled nearby and a line of around 60 police bicyclists took a break before pedaling off.
Ohio law allows legal gun owners to openly carry firearms. Thacker says he was trying to make a statement about his rights. He complained that fees and background checks associated with purchasing weapons results in the government “selling back” his privilege to buy and own firearms.
— Associated Press
2:15 p.m.
There was disappointment among some Ohio delegates that the state’s Republican governor John Kasich won’t be a participant.
Donald Miller, a delegate from Fostoria, said he penned a letter to Kasich voicing his disapproval in the governor’s deliberate absence.
“I’m very disappointed and I’m not the only one,” Miller said while sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel where most of the Ohio delegation will stay this week.
Miller and his wife Judy, each a former delegate, drove to Cleveland Saturday to beat the traffic. They planned to mingle with fellow Ohio Republicans in the city’s Little Italy Sunday afternoon but declined an invitation from the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County to take a sunset cruise on Lake Erie later that night.
Active in the Ohio Republican Party’s leadership committee, Donald Miller said Kasich pledged to support the presumptive nominee and should stick to his word for the sake of party unity.
Kasich, while still a contender, had say he would support whoever emerged victorious from the contentious primary. But he has since walked back that promise and has not endorsed Trump.
Instead of joining other state and national conservative leaders in Cleveland, Kasich was scheduled to speak at the annual NAACP gathering in Cincinnati, where he would deliver a message of peace and healing that contrasts sharply with the divisive tone Trump has taken when addressing tattered race relations in America.
— Doug Livingston
1 p.m.
Police cars and vans from out of state were rolling into Cleveland Sunday as they assemble to provide security.
— Doug Livingston
Follow reporter Stephanie Warsmith at @SWarsmithABJ
Follow reporter Rich Heldenfels at @RHeldenfelsABJ
Follow reporter Doug Livingston at @ABJDoug