Protective fencing is up, street closures are beginning and local and federal law enforcement officials say Chicago is prepared as Democrats begin to descend on the city for the party’s convention.
The convention is kicking off just five weeks after the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — a moment that raised concerns about the security at Democrats’ gathering in Chicago as well as Republicans’ convention in Milwaukee last month.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said Thursday on CNN that the attempted assassination “did heighten our awareness here” as law enforcement planned for “any possibility.”
“Comparing Butler to a national special security event — you can’t compare it,” Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Derek Mayer told reporters this week. “This is a whole of government approach — we’ve been planning for this convention for well over a year.”
Also looming as Chicago prepared for the convention has been the memory of 1968, when violent clashes between law enforcement and protesters erupted amid protests over the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam war.
Snelling said Chicago police have “taken corrective action on those past mistakes” — including efforts to prevent a repeat of 1968 in 2012, when Chicago hosted heads of government at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.
“The difference between 1968 and now is that the department has evolved. The city has evolved. And during that evolution, we’d gotten a lot better at dealing with these types of large-scale events,” Snelling said.
Most of the convention — including the primetime television speeches — will take place at the United Center, the home of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, in the city’s Near West Side neighborhood.
But other events will take place at McCormick Place, a massive convention center south of downtown.
The city has also set up two zones for protests: Union Park, the larger of the two, located three blocks east of the United Center, and Park 578, just north of the United Center. Protesters also plan to use a 1-mile route for a march that will take them within earshot of DNC attendees.
A coalition of protest groups are battling the city in court after city officials responded to permit requests Wednesday by prohibiting protesters from installing stages, sound systems, portable toilets or tents in the parks. Chicago Department of Transportation Assistant Commissioner Bryan Gallardo said in a letter the city would provide a stage and sound system in the smaller park, and that allowing groups to bring their own would be “redundant.”
Protective fencing went up around the United Center and McCormick Place earlier this week.
Street closures were set to begin Friday and Saturday as the city prepares to host about 50,000 visitors — including DNC delegates, an international media contingent, dignitaries, elected officials and more.
“There will be traffic delays, but that’s Chicago. We always have traffic delays in the city,” Snelling said.
It’s the latest in a busy summer of festivals and conventions in Chicago — a stretch that has also included the Lollapalooza music festival and the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, and will accelerate in September when an expected 100,000 visitors attend the International Manufacturing Technology Show.
Snelling told reporters that Chicago police officers have trained for a year with federal, state and local law enforcement partners to ensure that the event venue will be secure while promising that police resources will be present “in every single neighborhood” throughout Chicago’s 237 square mile footprint.
“We will not deplete resources from our neighborhoods to simply put in the area where the Democratic National Convention is being held,” Snelling said.
He made no guarantees that police would not make arrests, but emphasized that law enforcement officials intend to allow protesters to express their First Amendment rights.?
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“We will protect them while they’re doing that, but we will not guarantee someone that we’re not going to make arrests if they start to act violently or commit crimes,” he said.