RNC asks Secret Service to keep protesters farther from convention location
CNN
The Republican Party is asking the Secret Service to keep protesters farther back from the July convention in Milwaukeethan currently planned.
The Republican National Committee is asking the Secret Service to keep protesters farther back from the July convention in Milwaukee than is currently planned. RNC counsel Todd Steggerda wrote in a letter dated Friday that the city of Milwaukee’s current proposal “creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public” and places demonstrators in a one-block park that “will force thousands of peaceful attendees and demonstrators … to be in extremely close, consistent and unavoidable proximity.” Steggerda’s letter also requests a meeting between Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and RNC leadership to discuss the “urgent safety issue.” The letter comes amid heightened awareness around political protests as pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally at major universities across the US. Some campuses have called police to remove demonstrators, resulting in detainments and arrests. “As recent college and university campus clashes make plain, forced proximity heightens tensions among peaceful attendees and demonstrators of differing ideologies and increases the risk of escalation to verbal, or even physical, clashes and corresponding law enforcement intervention,” the letter states. Alexi Worley, spokesperson for the Secret Service, said in a statement that the agency is “not formally in receipt of the letter” and will “respond through appropriate channels” if it receives one.