A march in protest of Donald Trump’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate went without a hitch Thursday morning — despite the efforts of a religious group on the march route.
Stand Together Against Trump, a group of activists that opposes Trump, planned the march that crossed the entire mile-and-a-half Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland. The event was held on the final day of the Republican National Convention.
More than 200 protesters showed up to march — but so did a group of about a dozen religious extremists. The group shouted in a bullhorn that hell awaits liberals, immigrants, Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists, supporters of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, the LGBT community, consumers of pornography and a variety of other sub-groups.
The religious group went largely ignored by the marchers. Police kept the two groups separated as the march began.
Those who marched said the religious group echoed what they described as the ignorance and hate espoused by the Trump campaign.
It was just one of several potential problems deftly handled by the large police presence in the city.
In the early afternoon, a Georgia state trooper was treated for skin irritation after coming in contact with a sticker in Public Square. Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said a Cleveland police officer was also treated for skin irritation that didn’t involve a sticker.
Ciaccia said officers were investigating and urging people not to take stickers from people they don’t know.
Police also placed syringes on a list of items banned in the protest zone created for the Republican National Convention after unconfirmed reports of officers being injured with syringes.
The police announcements came as protest groups continued to fill Public Square and an anti-Trump group prepared a second rally and march on the last day of the convention.
One protester, a Cleveland woman who declined to give her name, dressed in a doctor’s garb and carried a sign offering Trump supporters free mental health therapy.
“Our political system is sick,” she said. “Anyone who supports Trump needs to have their head examined.”
Another woman, April Brucker, 31, carried a ventriloquist doll designed to look like Donald Trump. When approached by a Beacon Journal reporter, the doll sprang to life with a gruff voice she provided.
“I love the media,” she shouted in her Trump voice. “Just not the mainstream media!”
Brucker said she traveled from New York to protest at the convention because she is “socially conscious.”
Elsewhere in the city, protesters on all sides of the issues crowded Public Square all day long.
Members of the same religious group from the bridge spoke into a bullhorn there, too. At one point, a black woman grew angry that the group condemned Black Lives Matter to hell.
“Calm down, Shaniqua,” the man with a bullhorn shouted back at her.
The woman rushed a wall of police in a flurry of anger, but officers managed to keep her at bay avoiding a potentially violent confrontation.
Meanwhile, an anarchist group used a megaphone to shout its message. Police cordoned off the public from the group, but members said they wished police would let them be.
“You’re not protecting anyone,” one man told police as he attempted to hand literature to people in a crowd.
Present at the rally was Vermin Supreme, an activist known for wearing a rubber boot on his head. Supreme often runs as a independent presidential candidate, using his campaign to point out the “absurdity” of modern politics.
A few hours later, the Council on American-Islamic Relations passed out a mock cure for Islamophobia. Sahar Alsahlani, with CAIR-New York, pitched “Islamophobin” the mock medicine, which was actually chewing gum.
She noted the “amazing” diversity of humanity around her and said many of those who “suffer from chronic Islamophobia” could be cured if they would “take two at night and call a Muslim in the morning.”
Later in the day, another argument broke out — but it didn’t end in violence.
While members of a revolutionary communist group protested police violence and what they described as a poor selection of presidential candidates, a father and son from New Jersey challenged the message.
“You should be thanking the police,” Len Khodorkovsky, 46, shouted at the group.
His son, 18-year-old Natan Khodorkovsky, agreed.
“They’re here to protect you right now,” he shouted.
“Oh, I should thank the police for committing wanton murder against black people?” the demonstrator retorted. “Is that something you think is great?”
The argument went on for several minutes but ended when the communist group moved on.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com.