Coalition Condemns City’s Proposed Protest Routes

Milwaukee, WI – The Coalition to March on the RNC 2024 is gathered here today to formally condemn the routes proposed by the City of Milwaukee and the United States Secret Service (USSS) for our protest. It feels like we are at the point of insanity here, and I’m sure the media is tired of hearing the same thing at this point. Since two years ago, we have been demanding to march within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum. Not the Baird center, not within sight and sound of the media trucks, not within sight and sound of the barriers being built around our city, the Fiserv Forum. The City has heard our input for years now through supposed “community” meetings, through Public Works Committee meetings, through the media, and through several permit requests submitted. The City has decided to completely ignore our asks, our demands, our First Amendment rights. The proposed protest routes are completely unacceptable, and the way Nick Desiato described the City’s speaking platform’s earlier today shows us that the City does not know what they are doing. The City could not be trusted to organize a dinner party.

It’s been absurd listening to how City officials describe us to the public, to the media. They describe us as if we are complete fiction, as if we haven’t made our intentions clear, as if they haven’t been hearing from us constantly in the media and at their meetings. They are talking about us as if we haven’t been working on our route and organizing for this longer than they have. The USSS says they’ve been working on this plan since November. Well, we’ve been working on this since the RNC was announced for Milwaukee, and we have a right to be considered here in our own City. Nick Desiato described an ecosystem at play here in Milwaukee, and he notably only mentioned law enforcement agencies as he described this ecosystem. This is one of the few instances where he can be found telling the truth. It certainly looks like a route only designed by the Republicans and law enforcement. When the community is left out of the planning for this event, we form our own ecosystem too. One that will march with or without a permit, wherever we please. Like Chief Norman said, it wouldn’t be considered a protest if it didn’t bend the rules at least a little bit.

Chief Norman, Nick Desiato and company have worked tirelessly to defend Republicans and to be as accommodating to them as possible. They have rolled the red carpet out for them. Our City has been designed to be their playground, meanwhile, for years, we could not manage to get a reply from the city in terms of granting a permit for our requested route. They pretend it’s impossible to accommodate our route, but this is immediately countered by the fact that they’ve accommodated to the maximum extent for the Republicans. There is absolutely no reason that they cannot accommodate our march, which will only occur for a portion of the first day of the convention and is planned to be outside of the credentialed zone. We’ve been flexible with the City, and all we hear are completely illegitimate excuses as to why they will not allow us to march on our route.

Something notable is that Pere Marquette Park, for many months, was being projected by the City as a free speech zone. While we rejected this park as it is not within sight and sound of the RNC, the Republicans rejected it entirely because it supposedly served as a safety concern. The USSS states that they are making decisions completely based on security concerns and initially ignored the requests from the Republicans. Why is it that Pere Marquette Park is now behind the credentialed zone, now that the republicans have complained about it? Can the Republicans just buy their way into repressing our free speech? How many last minute venues will they be renting out? What does it mean for the City of Milwaukee when the RNC has a say over what the security perimeter looks like? Again, for strictly political reasons, the Secret Service shifted the credentialed zone to please the Republicans, at last minute request. The city cannot even fulfill our request to march outside of the credentialed zone.

I will bet, when we take this to court, they will argue to us that our First Amendment rights are subject to change as advised by the Secret Service. That it would be insane for us to say that we know better than the Secret Service. Isn’t it insane for the Republicans to say that they know better than the Secret Service? Apparently not, the precedent that this sets is that if the Republicans complain enough, they will get their way. This same consideration should be allowed for the community, now that the door has opened for public pressure to change the credentialed zone. We don’t have to rent out the space, the city is ours and we’ve been asking to march this route from the very moment the RNC was announced to take place in Milwaukee.

The Coalition to March on the RNC remains steadfast in our struggle against the City’s repression of our First Amendment rights. We are looking forward to taking this on through our lawsuit. We are also looking forward to marching on the route that we’ve decided for ourselves. If the City will not play ball with us, we will simply take the ball and play ourselves.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.