A.G. Gancarski
In a summer where people in Jacksonville, as elsewhere, have been marching for weeks to protest their powerlessness in the face of police violence, the city will take up the burden of hosting the renomination of a divisive, combative incumbent President.
Locals have squawked, and those protesters who have been in the streets by the thousands for what mostly have been peaceful events, will be joined by national and international protesters, some simply zealots on the political vanguard of one sort or another, and some likely provocateurs there to destabilize governments.
Jacksonville thus far has been somewhat free of the hallmarks of insurrection seen elsewhere, but this year, with this convention and this President, the city wrestles with questions about its history while serving as a setting for a larger national tableau of destruction and disorder.
For the Mayor, officially landing the event capped off one of the biggest weeks in local news history, with a 122-year old Confederate Monument being brought down before the improbable visual of Mayor Lenny Curry marching with Black Lives Matter protesters who represent an existential challenge to the President and the Law and Order agenda he touts.
Those protesters, and more, will be in the streets this August, during a convention time that coincides with the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday, one of the most brutal episodes of racial violence in the city.
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts” style comments, President Donald Trump‘s province, have not been Curry’s approach.
Jacksonville had a one night curfew during the worst protest actions two weeks ago.
Will a curfew be needed anew?
Expect President Trump’s speech, which certainly will be on the “LAW AND ORDER” theme he’s established since protests began last month, too be provocative. What happens if the protest scene gets out of hand and the President suggests sending the military in?
The arena, by and large, is a sealable perimeter. That’s one central argument for the location of the event. But the timing of the event cannot be so easily explained away.
“As it relates to the terrible, tragic event … we have to acknowledge that. It was a terrible time in this city,” Curry said, but not connected to “this economic event.”
“With a convention, there is significant funding that comes from the federal government,” Curry added, with “federal and state partners,” law enforcement from other counties, and “additional resources in the city subsidized by federal government.”
The Mayor was light on specifics about disbursement, but said “every single interaction” he’s had with the feds, “the dollars come in.”
The dollars will likely come in. But the city is going to need some luck as well.
While it will be difficult to match the Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention experience, in terms of an event capsized by protesters and a ham-handed law enforcement response, Jacksonville has potential for analogous chaos, given the city’s own innate tensions and the outsized influence of outside forces, headed to town to destabilize the event.
