The Final Call

GOP Convention: First Impressions by Askia Muhammad

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - I’ve attended political conventions every season since 1988. I’ve been to Atlanta, Boston, Charleston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Diego, among others. But on the surface, this is the most secure year ever. Not only are press credentials needed, we also had to be screened for a pass from the U.S. Secret Service. As would be expected, uniformed police are everywhere.

Ohio is an “open carry” state, meaning that civilians may openly carry any firearm which is legal in the United States, as long as it’s openly displayed. A group of White vigilantes inviting others to come and bring weapons said their intent is to help “protect the police.” That is an absurd notion. How can an unorganized, band of shooters do any better than disciplined and trained police can do protecting themselves? So, I wonder, how will the vigilantes know who to shoot, except for those whose Black or Brown skin color is their uniform?

So it was very refreshing to see the New Black Panther Party decide to not take weapons to their march and rally yesterday. There were women and children present a spokesman told reporters. Marching with guns “would have sent the wrong message,” he said.

Sitting at a coffee shop in the downtown district, outside the convention outer perimeter, a squad of 20 motorcycle cops just rode by, but they were not nearly as impressive as a squad of 50 cops on bicycles, each row of two bikes repeating the command “right turn” as they approached at 9^th and Euclid streets. Ironically, all the motorcyclists I’ve seen this morning have been operated by men who have to be in their 50s or older, with their gray hair and beards.

Two gentle moments though, which certainly cannot continue as the Republicans come to town with their hate messages disguised in “dog whistle,” coded language: a young mother at the bus stop headed to the “Lou Stokes Station” on the Rapid rail line, was serenading her baby in a stroller; moments later, in this hometown of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a speaker truck blasted the last 12 bars of the Old School National Anthem—Smokey Robinson and The Miracles “Ooh, Baby, Baby.” I fought back tears of joy. Congress member Louis Stokes was a distinguished member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the brother of Carl Stokes, Cleveland’s and the nation’s first Black big-city mayor.