Protesters Gather to March in Milwaukee as RNC Opens

A crowd of left-leaning demonstrators gathered Monday morning in a downtown Milwaukee park, prepared to proceed with a march on the first day of the Republican National Convention. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, protest organizers said, had not changed their demonstration plans, which had been in the works for months.

The gathering at Red Arrow Park on a sunny, humid morning included several hundred protesters drawn by a range of causes, including Palestinian rights, support for Ukraine and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as general fear about the country’s future in a second Trump administration.

“I came down to get encouraged,” said one protester, Ron Graef, 69, of suburban Milwaukee. “I’m hoping Trump doesn’t get in, because this country and world will be in trouble.”

The gathering came as thousands of convention delegates, journalists and Republican officials arrived in Milwaukee for the four-day event, which was unfolding a few blocks from the park where protesters gathered. Many law enforcement officers, including police officers on bikes, were posted in or near the park. Some counterprotesters gathered nearby.

Even as the attack, which happened during Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, left the country in a state of shock and worry, it seemed that the Republicans’ convention was going forward largely as planned. Secret Service officials expressed confidence in their security plan, which they said they had “strengthened” after the shooting. Republican Party leaders said that Trump would still accept the nomination in person on Thursday. And protesters, a consistent presence at national political conventions, were there, too.

“We have not had safety issues at any of our several marches or events, and we look forward to our family-friendly march,” Omar Flores, a co-chair of the Coalition to March on the RNC, said on Sunday in Milwaukee.

On Sunday, Secret Service officials in Milwaukee signaled that they would not change their security plan in response to the attack in Pennsylvania. But early Monday morning, the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, said in a statement that the convention security plans had been “reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.” She did not specify what had changed.

“As the conventions progress, and in accordance with the direction of the president, the Secret Service will continuously adapt our operations as necessary in order to ensure the highest level of safety and security for convention attendees, volunteers and the city of Milwaukee,” Cheatle said.

For their part, protest organizers said they still planned to hold a rally and march downtown on Monday around the time delegates would be arriving for some of the first meetings of the convention. There was still some uncertainty about how close to the event protesters would be allowed to march, a dispute that has simmered between organizers and city leaders for weeks. Flores said that his group intended to come “within sight and sound” of Fiserv Forum, the main convention hall. Some of the activists organizing the Milwaukee protests have also said that they were planning to protest next month outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Sasha Dean, 19, who took an eight-hour bus ride from Minneapolis to attend the protest on Milwaukee, said he was especially worried about what a potential Trump victory might mean for Ukraine. Though he was firmly opposed to Trump’s agenda, Dean condemned the assassination attempt against the former president.

“I think political violence is never the answer and is deeply shameful,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything for me politically. I still oppose Trump for the same reasons. But it’s never defensible to use violence to achieve a political end.”

The protest was not solely about Trump, one demonstrator said.

“Most of the people here are issue people, not necessarily anti-Trump,” said Lynn Preston, a retired art teacher from Waukesha, Wisconsin.

She attended the rally on Monday to protest the Republican Party platform, and to stand in support of women’s rights, protection of the environment and labor rights, she said.

After the attack on Saturday, protest organizers emphasized that their plans were unchanged. Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, part of the coalition planning to protest in Milwaukee, said on Sunday that “we’re going full steam ahead.”

“Regardless of any increase in tension, we still are calling on local and federal police to do their job, which is to not infringe on our protest rights,” Abudayyeh said.

Law enforcement officials said they were prepared for the demonstrators, who have said they expect to number in the thousands. Chief Jeffrey B. Norman of the Milwaukee Police Department said he wanted to reassure both local residents and convention attendees that the security plans would keep people safe.

“We got this,” the chief said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .