Former President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during his May 1 rally in Waukesha. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Milwaukee residents planning to protest outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July denounced the plan for parade routes and “free speech zones” announced by the US Secret Service on Friday. The plan adopts requests from Republican leaders who said a proposed protest site in Pere Marquette Park was too close to where RNC events would be held.
A parade route starting at Zeidler Union Square Park would lead demonstrators southeast of the convention site. Tightly controlled “speaker platforms” were located in the park and on the north side of the convention area, across from the Fiserv Forum. The reference zone was expanded after Republicans rented a location at the last minute. A group of local organizations, collectively known as the Coalition to March on the RNC, has been denouncing the city’s preparations for months. They said the latest plan suggests Republican officials could use such tactics to push out the security zone at will.
When the RNC was first announced, the coalition applied for a permit to march within sight and sound of the convention. Months passed without the permit being approved, with Republican leaders demanding the city and the Secret Service pushing the protests as far away from the convention as possible.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the city for violating the coalition’s freedom of speech rights. “We are surprised and disappointed to see how many blocks of downtown Milwaukee the Secret Service has declared off-limits to all but convention attendees,” ACLU staff attorney Tim Muth said in a statement. “The large size of this zone makes it more important than ever that the city takes steps to enable effective opportunities for expression and encounter for people with different points of view.”
Both the ACLU and the Coalition to March on the RNC attempted to negotiate terms with the city. Those talks collapsed this week and the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court. “We hope for a quick ruling that will endorse the coalition’s plan for a march that passes within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum,” Muth said. “The expansion of the designated zone all the way to the Milwaukee River and including Pere Marquette Park cannot be justified. The expansion represents an unacceptable concession to the Republican National Committee, which did not want to see or hear protesters near its convention.”
Many local groups have expressed the opinion that the city works harder to accommodate people who hate Milwaukee than city residents. Republican presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump has said Milwaukee is a “terrible city.” State Republicans have criticized Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s most racially diverse city, for years. A recent Pew Research survey found that one in five Trump supporters believe diversity weakens the country, while two in five feel fewer white people are bad for America.
Coalition spokesman Omar Flores said the city “doesn’t know what they’re doing… the city can’t be trusted to host a dinner party.” At a press conference, Flores said: “It was absurd to listen to how city officials described us to the public and the media… as if we had not made our intentions clear. … as if they haven’t heard from us all the time in the media and at their meetings.”
Flores added, “We have the right to be considered here in our own city. It certainly looks like a route designed only by Republicans and law enforcement.”
In response to city officials’ assertion that Milwaukee needs to consider the entire “ecosystem” surrounding the convention, Flores said, “If the community is left out of the planning for this event, we are also creating our own ecosystem. One that will march with or without a permit, wherever we want. Like chef [Jeffrey] Norman said, “It wouldn’t be a protest if the rules weren’t bent at least a little bit.”
Flores questioned why the Secret Service originally proposed Pere Marquette Park as a free speech zone but changed course when Republican officials complained it was too close to the convention. “How many last-minute locations are they going to rent out?” Flores asked. “What does it mean for the city of Milwaukee if the RNC has a say in what the security perimeter looks like?” Flores added, “Isn’t it crazy for Republicans to say they know better than the Secret Service? Apparently not. The precedent it sets is that if Republicans complain enough, they will get their way.”
At a news conference Friday, the Secret Service said the park is too close to the Milwaukee County Historical Society, which hosts official RNC events, to ensure security, so the perimeter for accredited convention attendees was extended to include the park.
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The Coalition to March on RNC blast parade route restrictions first appeared on Wisconsin Examiner.
