Mod: Trump literally wants a war in the streets. All of the ingredients are there in Tulsa.
Tense mood grips Tulsa as Trump fans and protesters gather ahead of campaign rally (
Washington Postlink):
Tulsa was a city on edge Friday night, as
Trump fans and protesters gathered in anticipation of the president's first campaign rally in months set for Saturday, raising fears of a violent confrontation and a worsening spread of the coronavirus as local cases spike.
Authorities set up a perimeter around the 19,000-seat
BOK Center in downtown
Tulsa, where those eager to see
Trump started lining up at midweek. Businesses around the area boarded up their windows, and the mayor issued a state of emergency and set up a curfew out of concern that outside groups were headed to town to raise trouble.
But the city announced it was rescinding the safety measures after
Trump tweeted: "I just spoke to the highly respected
Mayor of
Tulsa,
G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the
#MAGA Rally,"
Trump said. "Enjoy yourselves - thank you to
Mayor Bynum!"
The surprise decision threw another dose of chaos into the mix, as
Trump moved forward to stage a rally that was controversial on two fronts. Not only did it come in a racially torn city at a fraught moment, but it also flouted health guidelines that recommend against mass gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, with opponents of the rally on health grounds unsuccessfully pressing their objections at the state
Supreme Court.
The president's decision to hold his first campaign-style rally since the pandemic began in
Tulsa on the weekend of
Juneteenth angered many across the county and comes as the country is in the midst of a historic reckoning on race after the death of
George Floyd while in police custody in
Minneapolis on May 25.
Friday, the
Rev. Robert R.A. Turner stood in front of the
Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church— where the basement was one of the few structures that survived the devastation in 1921 — and watched as crowds streamed past one group selling
Black Lives Matter clothing and another registering people to vote.
“We know that people came here nearly 100 years ago and sought to destroy black
Wall Street,”
Turner said. “We don’t want other individuals to come finish the job. I just hope and pray that the president keeps his people calm, but I have no faith in this president. He has shown a propensity to incite violence.”
Earlier in the day,
Trump on
Twitter had warned that “any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to
Oklahoma, please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in
New York,
Seattle or
Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!”
Mod: More at the WaPo link.
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