Weary of protest, Baltimore activists seek change
BALTIMORE — Under the beating summer sun, retired steelworker Arthur B. Johnson Jr. stood outside the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse in Baltimore, clutching a homemade sign.
“Justice for Freddie Gray,” it read. Inside, a fourth officer was about to be cleared of criminal charges in Gray’s death last April, a week after Gray’s neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van. Johnson has shown up for every trial, in pouring rain and sweltering heat.
Thousands took to the streets last spring. The refrain of “No
Protesters, party leaders and city officials were making final plans as Philadelphia prepared to host the fourday Democratic National Convention that starts Monday.
More than 5,000 delegates are among the 50,000 people set to attend the gathering at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, which is expected to culminate with Hillary Clinton being named the party’s official nominee for president.
Protest groups prepared Saturday for events scheduled throughout the week that address health care, immigration, economic justice and other concerns. Clean energy supporters met in the city’s Kensington neighborhood to finish artwork they’ll carry in a planned march today from City Hall to Independence Mall.
“The demonstration is here to send a message to the assembled political leaders, especially because it’s unique to Pennsylvania. This is a state that is kind of ground zero for the movement against fracking,” said Peter Hart, a spokesman for Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based group that promotes clean energy alternatives.
Meanwhile, about 30 anti-abortion activists who oppose Clinton’s presidential bid marched in West Philadelphia.
Temperatures that could hit the high 90s were a concern. Mayor Jim Kenney issued a heat warning Saturday for both residents and convention visitors. Misting tents, medics and bottled water will be available at FDR Park and along South Broad Street, where protesters planned to gather.
Kenney urged demonstrators to refrain from camping for safety reasons, given the likelihood of storms and high temperatures, even in the overnight hours. The city did not issue any camping permits, he said.
For security measures, officials were banning large trucks and other vehicles from stretches of Interstate 95 and other highways in and around the city, and closing some highway ramps near the arena.
Downtown, the host committee for the DNC wrapped many of the large construction sites remaking the city in heavy cloth, or “scrims,” emblazoned with famous political quotes.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell, the host committee chairman, called the scrims unveiled Saturday “a fun and educational way to showcase the city’s productivity while also beautifying the sites as we prepare for the eyes of the world to focus on us next week.” justice, no peace” rang through the city’s east and west sides for more than a week; after a riot broke out, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake instituted a 10 p.m. curfew. The National Guard rolled into town to restore order.
But these days, Johnson and his sign typically stand alone.
The most recent acquittal, for Lt. Brian Rice, the highestranking officer charged in Gray’s death, was rapidly preceded by two others, including Officer Caesar Goodson, who drove the wagon in which Gray’s spine was snapped.
Where once the streets exploded in fire and fury, the sidewalks are calm; the flames extinguished and the palpable rage dissipated.
They don’t like to be called white supremacists.
The well-dressed men who gathered in Cleveland’s Ritz-Carlton bar after Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican nomination for president prefer the terms “Europeanists,” “alt-right,” or even “white nationalists.” They are also die-hard Trump supporters.
Far from hiding in chat rooms or under white sheets, they cheered the GOP nominee from inside the Republican National Convention last week. While not official delegates, they nevertheless obtained credentials to attend the party’s highest-profile quadrennial gathering.
Several gathered in the hotel well after midnight following Trump’s Thursday address, a fiery appeal
Some activists say the anger has shifted to the state’s capital: due to increasing pressure, this year lawmakers enacted reforms to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights for the first time since its inception nearly 40 years ago. Others say the feverish momentum of last spring was simply unsustainable.
But all agree on one thing: although initially emboldened by the criminal charges brought against the officers, the procession of acquittals has left nearly hopeless the residents most familiar with the police practices that landed the city under federal review in the first place.
“There were hopes and expectations that these officers they said helped push the Republican Party closer to its principles.
“I don’t think people have fully recognized the degree to which he’s transformed the party,” said Richard Spencer, a 38-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, who sipped Manhattans as he matterof-factly called for removing African-Americans, Hispanics and Jews from the United States.
Like most in his group, Spencer said this year’s convention was his first.
“Tons of people in the alt-right are here,” he said, putting their numbers at the RNC in the dozens. “We feel an investment in the Trump campaign.”
He and his group chatted up convention goers late into the night, including an executive from a major Jewish organization and a female board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition. They sat wouldn’t just be indicted, but convicted,” said Tawanda Jones, whose brother died three years ago after an encounter with Baltimore police.
Days after the riot last spring State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced criminal charges against six police officers in Gray’s death, the most serious being second-degree “depravedheart” murder against Goodson. Under Mosby’s scenario, the officers loaded Gray — who had run from police — into the back of a transport wagon as a healthy 25-year-old man, and carried him out with a spinal injury that killed him.
But after four unsuccessful prosecutions, the case has all but at the marble bar as Spencer explained his position on blacks, Hispanics and Jews. They challenged him repeatedly and expressed shock at how calmly he dismissed their rejection of his ideals.
“We’ll help them go somewhere else. I’m not a maniac,” Spencer said of the minorities he wants to eject from the country. “I know in order to achieve what I want to achieve, you have to deal with people rationally.”
The New York billionaire’s campaign declined to comment on the attendance last week by Spencer and other white supremacists at Trump’s nominating convention. Trump has publicly disavowed the white supremacist movement when pressed by journalists.
Sean Spicer, chief strategist for the Republican National Committee, said organizers release credentials fallen apart, leaving those most vocal about police reforms weary, and ready to focus elsewhere.
Adam Jackson, co-founder of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, an advocacy organization focused on policy changes, said, “People are worn out from protesting and less concerned with the spectacle than what we can do to change the structures.”
Gray’s death did yield some tangible results in Baltimore. Then-commissioner Anthony Batts was abruptly fired for his handling of the unrest. The mayor halted her re-election campaign. The department’s use of force policy was overhauled. All officers will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras. in large blocks to state delegations, special guests and media outlets. Officials have little control over where they end up, he said, noting that protesters from the liberal group Code Pink managed to get into the convention hall.
“People get tickets through various means, including the media,” Spicer said. “In no way, shape or form would we ever sanction any group or individual that espoused those views.”
A cache of more than 19,000 emails from Democratic party officials, leaked Friday in advance of Hillary Clinton’s nomination this week, details the split between the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Several emails posted by Wikileaks on its document disclosure website show DNC officials scoffing at Sanders and his supporters and, in one instance, questioning his commitment to his Jewish faith.
Wikileaks did not disclose who provided the material, but those knowledgeable about the breach said last month that Russian hackers had penetrated the DNC computer system. On its web page, Wikileaks said the new cache of emails came from the accounts of “seven key figures in the DNC” and warned that the release was “part one of our new Hillary Leaks series.”
The emails include several denunciations of Sanders and his organization before and after the DNC briefly shut off his campaign’s access to the party’s key list of likely Democratic voters.
The DNC temporarily curtailed Sanders’ access to the list in December because the organization accused his campaign of illegally tapping into confidential voter information compiled by the Clinton campaign. The Sanders campaign sued the DNC but the party reached an accord with Sanders and the suit was dropped in April.
The emails show that after the furor over the voter records was resolved, hostility simmered from top DNC officials over the Sanders campaign.
In mid-May emails with DNC spokesman Luis Miranda, his deputy, Mark Paustenbach, questioned whether the DNC should use the voter record furor to raise doubts about the Sanders campaign.
“Wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” Paustenbach wrote. Miranda spurned the idea, although he agreed with Paustenbach’s take.
The same month, an official identified only as “Marshall” said of Sanders: “Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps.”
The Associated Press emailed Miranda, Paustenbach and DNC chief financial officer Brad Marshall but they were not available for comment. Sanders campaign officials also were not available after contacts from the AP.