Hundreds of police swarmed Cleveland’s Public Square on Tuesday afternoon as dozens of competing groups from across the political spectrum jostled for attention in the city centre creating occasionally tense and often surreal scenes.
Eight militiamen from the radical constitutionalist group the West Ohio Minutemen could be seen patrolling on the square’s north side carrying loaded long guns, as the philosopher and civil rights leader Cornel West strode through the crowds just meters away.
At the square’s south side, less than a dozen members of the religious hate group the Westboro Baptist church held placards reading “God hates proud sinners” and “Same sex marriage dooms nations” and said they “hated” both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Standing behind them was the performance artist and libertarian Vermin Supreme, who is also running for president, and claimed he could solve America’s political divide by “offering free ponies”.
Although minor scuffles momentarily broke out, prompting a surge of officers, there were no arrests reported at the event. By late afternoon law enforcement officers, who formed a number of perimeter circles around the square and deployed two lines of officers on horseback, outnumbered protesters by about two to one.
There were reports in local media that some protesters had thrown urine at members of the Westboro Baptist church, but a spokeswoman for the city of Cleveland said no such event had occurred.
Thousands of police from multiple agencies around the US have descended on Cleveland, amid fears of civil unrest in the city during the Republican national convention. But only five arrests have occurred since Sunday. Three people were arrested earlier on Tuesday after attempting to climb flagpoles in the city’s downtown area. One individual was arrested on Sunday for attempting to steal an officer’s gas mask, while one woman was arrested on Monday on an outstanding felony warrant.
Earlier on Tuesday a group named the Bible Believers stood in Public Square, holding signs, which branded “every real Muslim” a “jihadist”, as a single protester, decrying police violence and wearing a handmade T-shirt which read “Tamir Rice only”, attempted to shout them down to little avail.
A group who only described themselves as “born-again Christians” preached on a loudspeaker under signs which read “Now is the day of Salvation” and “Repent (turn from your Sin - to Jesus)” as a young boy, handed a bullhorn by Vermin Supreme, branded them white supremacists.
A small group of police officers, who had remained focused throughout much of the event, cracked into a short smile, before regaining their stern glares.
