Protests, GOP Convention complicate messaging for Lenny Curry

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry breezed to reelection in 2019, but 2020's issues are a different matter.

In recent days, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has been put in the position of trying to appease two distinct audiences.

On one hand, his city has been chasing the Republican National Convention. Though the city lacks a modern convention center and suffers from a lack of hotel rooms, Curry says Jacksonville is ready to host the “world-class event.”

On the other hand, Curry has tried, with some success, to keep protesters mollified and property damage at a relative minimum after a conflagration-plagued weekend.

Thursday saw Curry answering questions about both matters, expressing confidence that the city would welcome the RNC with open arms despite the protests in recent days.

“People have demonstrated their ability to have their voices heard in large crowds and do it responsibly in a safe way,” Curry said, expressing confidence that the kind of violent protests that go along with national conventions during times of division wouldn’t happen here, in “One City, One Jacksonville.”

“We can put on events in our city that some may disagree with,” Curry said, an event that would “create jobs and an economic boom.”

“The opportunity [to host] coming out of a pandemic … the responsible thing for us to do is pursue it,” Curry said, noting that “people are going to appreciate the jobs.”

“We’ve got to get back to business in our city,” Curry added, noting the city’s “demonstrated ability … to host events and move forward responsibly.”

“I’m not going to make economic decisions for this city out of fear,” the Mayor added, saying he would welcome the Democratic National Convention, should it want to come to a city where the party didn’t field a Mayoral candidate against him in 2019.

The thousands of people protesting in Jacksonville streets may disagree with the convention push, but the Mayor is staying on their good sides also.

“Another night of our friendly city expressing free speech in a peaceful way. Voices heard and love to all,” Curry tweeted Wednesday, after 3,000 marched through the streets of the San Marco neighborhood.

Curry lauded on Thursday the “very large, very peaceful protests” as “we all work for change.”

But there is divergence on what change looks like. And what protesters want is antithetical to the Donald Trump iteration of the Republican Party.

Protesters demand reforms, including a civilian review board for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and release of body camera footage for a number of police involved shootings. But Curry has not backed those, and he wasn’t specific in responses to media Thursday.

“Both the Sheriff and myself and the State Attorney,” Curry said, have heard about “inequities throughout this city that have existed for decades.”

Pushes for change haven’t really moved through this Mayor. His administration helped to kill a marijuana decriminalization measure that would have removed one pretext for police stops of African-American men.

On a call with the Jacksonville City Council, Curry was silent when invited by the sponsor of that proposal, Councilman Garrett Dennis, to “walk hand-in-hand” in a march across the city Sunday morning.

On Thursday, Curry sidestepped the question, saying that “law enforcement resources would be at risk” if the Mayor “was out in the middle of some of these.”

“You guys would give me a great photo op,” Curry said, “but this isn’t the time” for the Mayor to walk the streets with those seeking structural change.

The Mayor ran on a public safety platform in 2015.

Still, his rhetoric is much softer on the matter of protests than the President that Curry wants to come here for his renomination.

The President famously declared himself the “President of Law and Order” ahead of paramilitary police squelching protests in D.C.

The Mayor has yet to comment on that.