MILWAUKEE — Hundreds of demonstrators converged Monday on downtown Milwaukee to protest around the Republican National Convention, saying the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump won’t affect their long-standing plans to rally outside the site.
A wide range of organizations and activists gathered in a downtown park outside the Fiserv Forum’s security perimeter to listen to speakers ahead of a street march coordinated by The Coalition to March on the RNC. The coalition, made up largely of local groups, supports abortion and immigrant rights and is pressing to end the war in Gaza.
The atmosphere was festive, with music playing over loudspeakers, a man strumming a guitar and vendors selling T-shirts and buttons supporting both Republicans and Democrats. One protester wore an orange prison jumpsuit with a giant Trump cutout for a face. Activists carried signs that read “Stand with Palestine,”https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jul/16/protesters-rally-in-milwaukee-as-gop-convention/”We Can No Longer Afford the Rich” and “Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights.”
At one point, a group of demonstrators got into an argument with counterprotesters who denounced LGBTQ+ rights, Muslims, Black Lives Matter and women.
Counterprotester Rich Penkoski of Stillwater, Okla., bellowed through a bullhorn that women should go home and make sandwiches for their husbands. The demonstrators eventually walked away from the counterprotesters as police looked on.
At noon, the demonstrators set off on the march around the arena’s security perimeter, chanting “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Republicans have got to go” and “This is what democracy looks like.” Many carried Palestinian flags.
Marchers passed within a block of Fiserv Forum on the edge of the arena’s security zone before returning to the downtown park where they began. The Milwaukee Police Department estimated the crowd at between 700-800 people and said no one was arrested.
However, an Associated Press reporter saw a man in handcuffs being held by police outside the park after the march ended. An officer told him he was being arrested for disorderly conduct, though it wasn’t immediately clear what led to the arrest or if the man was part of the protest.
The Philadelphia-based group Poor People’s Army, which advocates for economic justice, marched later Monday afternoon. Two dozen protesters gathered in a park about a mile from Fiserv Forum to prepare for the march, jotting slogans on signs decrying corporate greed, mass incarceration, the war in Gaza and other issues as Pete Seeger’s “Which Side Are You On?” played on a speaker.
Perennial Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein addressed the group, calling for less military spending and larger investments in public education, social housing and health care. She didn’t mention the assassination attempt.
Cheri Honkala, 60, said she traveled to Milwaukee from one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania to “send a strong message to all politicians” that people living below the poverty line “are not surviving.”
Honkala said she was nervous after the attempted assassination of Trump about potential encounters with law enforcement officers and counterprotesters while she marched with the Poor People’s Army, but she said she wasn’t deterred.
“The climate is definitely a scary one,” she said, “but you know what’s scarier? Not saying anything.”
A gunman identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a shot during a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday evening that grazed Trump’s ear. A rally participant was killed and two more were critically wounded during the assault, prompting widespread calls to improve security and raising questions about Trump’s safety in Milwaukee, as well as that of other convention-goers.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s largest immigrant rights group, condemned political violence but blamed Trump for fostering anger.
“It’s undeniable that Trump’s rhetoric, policies and actions have contributed to a climate of increased violence and legitimized hate crimes,” she said.
Peter Wilt, 64, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., was in the crowd Monday morning. He held a sign that read “Now Will U Ban Automatic Weapons.” Wilt said the sign referred to the assassination attempt.
“Common-sense gun laws are just that. Common sense,” he said. “The GOP has refused to enact common-sense gun laws, in part because it hasn’t hit home for them.”
There was a heavy police presence in the city, with officers from multiple jurisdictions providing security. Pentagon officials said 1,700 National Guard troops, mostly from Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, were on active duty at the convention as well.
Milwaukee officials and federal authorities have repeatedly said their priority is safety and insist that they’ve made free speech accommodations.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Foody and Lolita Baldor of The Associated Press.
