The US Secret Service, after weeks of pressure from Republican officials, has agreed to set up a Milwaukee park near the Republican National Convention for protesters who will shout down delegates and other conventioneers, convention officials said Thursday.
The Secret Service denied the statement, saying that no final decision has been made, but in the war of words between the Republican National Committee and the service, the RNC seemed to claim victory in the battle to wall off Pere Marquette Park from protesters.
“We applaud the leadership of the Secret Service for including Pere Marquette Park in the security perimeter,” said Danielle Alvarez, senior adviser to the campaign of former President Donald J. Trump. He said party leaders are “asking local officials to expedite permit applications” and “choose a different location for the First Amendment Zone.”
Todd R. Steggerda, lawyer for the Republican National Committee, last month raised the burden of “increased and untenable risk of violence” when he demanded that the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly A. Cheatle, intervened to move the so-called. First Amendment Zone.
The service responded that, with decades of experience, officers would be able to keep convention-goers safe, although protesters were allowed to gather in Pere Marquette Park, on the banks of the Milwaukee River, about a quarter mile from the arena hosting the convention.
On Thursday, Republican officials said the park was being pulled into a security zone around the Fiserve Forum, where the main convention function would take place.
A Secret Service statement said the matter had not been resolved.
“Currently, the security plan for the 2024 Republican National Convention, which includes a security perimeter, is still being developed,” said Alexandria Worley, a spokeswoman for the service. “The US Secret Service does not designate demonstration zones for National Special Security Events – that decision is made by the host city.”
Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, also said Thursday that no decision has been made on the location of the protest zone. Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, has welcomed the convention, but he has balanced the needs of conventioneers with the demands of protesters from a heavily Democratic city. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin sued the city last week on behalf of a protest umbrella group, the Coalition to March on the RNC, claiming city officials have restricted free speech in Milwaukee.
Omar Flores, leader of a coalition of protesters, said Thursday that the Pere Marquette Park site is already in trouble. He said that it is too far from the location of the convention, and the permission of the city has been crowded together against the group that is most likely to clash.
However, any agreement to place the nearest park within the security perimeter could put pressure on the city. Republicans demanded that the city push the protest zone south about half a mile to Zeidler Union Square, out of sight and hearing of convention goers entering the main arena. To push the issue, Republicans have applied for their own permit to hold an event in Pere Marquette Park.
It will be up to city and Milwaukee County officials to get permission for the new location.
Much attention has been paid to the protesters who are expected to mass in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention in August, where President Biden will officially name the party’s candidate for the 2024 election. Mr. Biden has been dogged by protesters objecting to support for Israel in its war on Hamas in Gaza.
But the protesters also vowed to be in Milwaukee to “fight against the racist and reactionary agenda of the Republican Party.” If the protestors were written far from the convention site, it could scare the authorities of Chicago to make their own movement early to contain the demonstration.
“The Secret Service and the city seem to bend to the will of the Republicans,” Mr. Flores said.
Republican lawyers have been moving for weeks toward protesters in Milwaukee.
“Your failure to act now to prevent an unnecessary and certain risk will endanger tens of thousands of convention attendees, by making it impossible for them to get close to the First Amendment Zone that we are currently planning,” Mr. Steggerda wrote to Ms. Cheatle last month.
The Secret Service reacted angrily after Mr. Steggerda’s letter was made public, complete with a map of the temporary security perimeter.
“Releasing security information publicly, as we did in this letter, undermines our ability to maintain the integrity of our security plans and keep the convention, its attendees and the public safe,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in response. to Mr. Steggerda.
