The Republican Party despatched a letter to the Secret Service on Friday urging the police company to maintain protesters farther away from the venue for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
The three-page letter, signed by Todd R. Steggerda, counsel to the Republican National Committee, objected to the location of an space the place protesters could be allowed to show. Mr. Steggerda argued that conference attendees could be pressured to cross by the protesters on their approach into the venue, elevating the potential for confrontations.
“As recent college and university campus clashes make plain,” Mr. Steggerda wrote within the letter obtained by The New York Times, “forced proximity heightens tensions among peaceful attendees and demonstrators of differing ideologies and increases the risk of escalation to verbal, or even physical, clashes.”
Under the safety plan proposed by the Secret Service, in line with the letter, protesters will probably be confined to Pere Marquette Park, a small public park on the financial institution of the Milwaukee River a couple of quarter of a mile from Fiserv Forum — the sector that’s house to the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A. and that’s internet hosting the conference. The letter provides that the 2 principal routes to the sector designated by the Secret Service are adjoining to the park, which might pressure these heading to the conference to cross by it.
“Packing demonstrators into a park essentially boxed in by the two streets that thousands of attendees will be using to enter the convention site will only serve to heighten — rather than prevent and diffuse — any tension,” Mr. Steggerda wrote.
Alexi Worley, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, mentioned in a press release that the company “is not formally in receipt” of the letter, including, “If a letter is received, the Secret Service will respond through appropriate channels.” The copy of the letter obtained by The Times was addressed to Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, “via hand delivery.”
Ms. Worley added that safety plans for occasions just like the Republican National Convention are “developed and approved through an executive steering committee made up of representatives from the Secret Service, as well as supporting federal, state and local agencies.”
The R.N.C. didn’t suggest an alternate location for the demonstration zone within the letter, as a substitute suggesting that the Secret Service increase the safety perimeter to maneuver protesters away from the world.