Cleveland Police chief ahead of RNC: "We're prepared for it all"
With concerns that violence and protests could disrupt the Republican Convention in Cleveland this week, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said Sunday that the city is ready for anything.
"We've heard reports from different sources about everyone from anarchists to black separatists to just regular Trump followers, anti-Trump followers," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Everybody has been, in some way, shape or form touted as coming to Cleveland to either cause trouble or exercise their First Amendment rights, but we're prepared for it all."
Just a few days after the deadly attack in Nice that killed more than 80 people, Williams said the Cleveland Police have adjusted their plans to protect against a similar attack this week.
"We've placed barriers or barricades at certain key streets and intersections around the downtown neighborhood just to make sure things like that transpired in Nice are thwarted here in Cleveland if they're attempted," he said.
The recent slaying of five police officers during a protest in Dallas, too, has played a role in the way police forces in Cleveland are allocating their resources, Williams said.
"Things that happen around the country and around the world do affect to some degree how we respond here in Cleveland," he added.
Presenting yet another "challenge" this week, Williams noted, is the fact that people can open-carry firearms in the city and even in some parts of the convention perimeter.
"There's always a challenge when firearms and the public kind of mesh together," he said. "But we've had open-carry scenarios in the city before, and we've handled them -- we plan to handle them the same way as we always have."
