Republican leaders are urging the Secret Service to widen a security perimeter around the site of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to protect delegates and attendees from potentially dangerous clashes with pro-Palestinian demonstrators who plan to swarm the event in July.
Republicans say the Secret Service, along with local and state officials in Wisconsin, are setting a “protest trap,” as one source familiar with the plan described it, for RNC attendees, including members of Congress.
Milwaukee officials, meanwhile, told RNC planners that the convention has instilled “fear in the community,” particularly from people of color who are afraid they will be harassed and threatened by Republican attendees.
RNC planners say the proposed perimeter would allow the throngs of protesters to assemble and demonstrate at Pere Marquette Park, which is located less than a mile from the convention center and along the route that attendees will have to travel to enter a key security checkpoint.
Significant protests are anticipated at both the Republican and Democratic conventions this summer following weeks of unrest at college campuses over the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.
The RNC is also expected to attract supporters and opponents of presumptive nominee and former President Donald Trump. Democrats are planning more online events to avoid encounters with protesters at their August convention in Chicago.
Republicans planning the Milwaukee convention want the Secret Service to expand the perimeter of a proposed security fence to keep protesters away, but so far, the Secret Service has stuck to a proposed perimeter that excludes the park out of concern the city will be sued by demonstrators seeking access to the city-owned green space.
“So they’re giving these protesters the benefit of the doubt, to be in this park and harass our convention attendees instead of risking getting sued,” said a source familiar with the plan.
The effect, RNC attorney Todd R. Steggerda wrote to the Secret Service, “will be creating…a mandated confrontational area where pedestrians will be funneling into the direct (planned) vicinity of the demonstrators.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, wrote to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle urging her to meet with RNC leaders to discuss the security concerns ahead of the convention, which will take place July 15-18 at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
“I am deeply concerned about reports that the security perimeter around the Republican National Convention site in Milwaukee may be creating a likely — and preventable—area of conflict between protesters and convention attendees and delegates,” Mr. McConnell wrote.
Mr. McConnell’s letter follows a heated meeting between RNC officials and members of the Secret Service and local officials in which the Secret Service declined to move the perimeter.
The Secret Service agents in Milwaukee told RNC officials they have received no credible intelligence of safety threats to convention attendees. Expanding the perimeter would subject them to lawsuits from those seeking even closer access, they said, according to a source familiar with the meeting told The Washington Times.
According to the source, a Milwaukee police captain told RNC officials at the meeting that members of the community believe conventiongoers are the real threat, and that attendees would “terrorize Milwaukee citizens” and “harass minorities.”
The source with knowledge of the meeting said Republican officials were shocked by the comments.
“It was probably one of the most offensive meetings I’ve ever been in. It was wild,” the source said. “It came out of nowhere. And it caught us all completely off guard.”
A city official told The Washington Times that the captain was conveying information from community members, not providing his own opinions about the RNC.
“He was relating comments that others have made at community meetings,” spokesman Jeff Fleming told The Times.
The disagreement over the perimeter, he said, boils down to an effort to try to balance the rights of demonstrators and the safety of the conventiongoers.
“The city of Milwaukee has an obligation to coordinate a demonstration area and a parade route during the convention,” Mr. Fleming said. “Convention officials have said the demonstration area is too close to the convention. People planning to demonstrate have said it is too far away.”
The Secret Service, which did not respond to an inquiry from The Times, assured RNC officials they have uncovered no credible threats of violence.
The city’s Department of Public Works is authorized to reject permit requests from protesters who “have previously engaged in violent or destructive conduct in connection with a previous parade or other public assembly.”
City officials said they are obligated to allow protesters to set up “within sight and sound” of the convention.
Protesters who hope to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where President Biden will accept his party’s nomination, have been pushed much further away.
The Chicago City Council approved an ordinance earlier this year that will keep protesters 3.5 miles away from the United Center, where the convention will be held Aug. 19-22.
A coalition of groups are seeking an injunction against the ordinance and have asked a federal judge to clear the way for them to protest closer to the United Center.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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