Extra

The Battle for the Street in Cleveland

Chris Krohn
Thursday July 21, 2016 - 09:31:00 AM

Downtown Cleveland, Ohio has been in a state of near lockdown this week: more than Dallas, more than Baton Rouge, La., and perhaps even more than Bagdad. Groups of heavily armed police, military, US Marshals and Secret Service patrol the streets surrounding “the Q,” the Quicken Loans Arena where over 4,000 delegates and alternates of the Republican National Committee are holed up and set to nominate Donald J. Trump tonight as their candidate for President. The NBA’s Lebron James, who also performs at the Q, might be hard pressed to put up the kind of firepower now on display here in Cleveland, the “Rock and Roll Capitol of the World.” James’s shooting arsenal is formidable—hopefully we do not have to find out about any shots the police might take. 

The police mostly walk because it’s near impossible to drive anywhere close to the Q. And then there’s the seven-foot wrought iron fence that separates most of the pedestrians from many of the places people normally walk or drive to when the RNC is not in town. Although new cement barriers appear to be haphazardly placed in alleyways, parking garages or at intersections to divert both vehicles and pedestrians, there must be a plan, but it’s not immediately clear what it is. Maybe that’s what the Secret Service wants? 

According to Lt. Eric Hoskinson, campus police officer at Ohio University in Athens, there are police here from twenty-one states, including from the Golden State. That’s right, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is here, not patrolling the 5 or the 101 or even 880, but Superior and Prospect Avenues, East 4th Street, and all the rest of the urban terrain surrounding the RNC’s super bunker. 

“They’re pretty good guys, glad they’re here,” says Hoskinson while standing on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland. He offers a nod of his head toward a group of CHP officers like they’re old chums. The CHP is doing what most cops here appear to be doing after a tense first couple of days of getting used to the political street beat: The cops do a lot of standing around. At times they lean awkwardly on a wall, but most of the time they walk casually, often single file and usually in groups of four to eight officers. 

I’ve noticed police from Austin and Louisville, and state troopers from Florida and New Jersey trying to give the political tourists here directions. They finally have to admit that they’re not from Cleveland. I ask Lt. Hoskinson how police from Texas, Indiana, or even California are able to offer street advice. They adapt, according to a smiling Lt. Hoskinson. “I’m from Ohio, and sometimes these guys do better at giving directions that I can.”