GOP urges Secret Service to move protesters from park near convention arena

The Republican Party is urging the Secret Service to move protesters farther away from the arena in Milwaukee where the party will hold its convention in July, according to a letter sent to the agency Friday and reviewed by The Washington Post.

Milwaukee’s plan to host protesters in a one-block city park about a quarter-mile from the arena is dangerous because thousands of convention attendees will be forced to walk by the park en route to the festivities, a lawyer for the Republican Party wrote in the letter. The park is situated between two main streets that the Republican National Committee says convention attendees will use to get to the venue.

“This will force thousands of peaceful attendees and demonstrators, who may otherwise choose to avoid or limit direct, proximate engagement with one another, to be in extremely close, consistent, and unavoidable proximity. As recent college and university campus clashes make plain, forced proximity heightens tensions among peaceful attendees and demonstrators of differing ideologies and increases the risk of escalation to verbal, or even physical, clashes and corresponding law enforcement intervention,” wrote the lawyer, Todd Steggerda of McGuireWoods.

Instead, the GOP wants the Secret Service to include the area called Pere Marquette Park in its security perimeter, which would force the city to choose a different area for its “First Amendment Zone.” Pere Marquette is the closest large park to the arena. The RNC has proposed another park by City Hall across the river from the arena, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/26/republican-national-convention-protests-milwaukee/