A Handful of Activists Led Hundreds of Media and Police Around Downtown Cleveland Today

“We were like magnets that attracted more reporters, and more cops.”

A handful of anarchists and communists were surrounded by police and media in Downton Cleveland Thursday.AJ Vicens

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A group of no more than 15 activists led hundreds of police and journalists on a winding, impromptu march through the streets of Downtown Cleveland Thursday afternoon as they chanted anti-capitalist slogans.

The peaceful march was punctuated by moments of yelling between a self-proclaimed Communist and his anarchist cohort and a group of pro-capitalist counter-protesters who followed them the entire time while using a megaphone to extol the benefits of free markets. No arrests were made, and there were no reported injuries, according to the Cleveland Police Department. So far 23 people have been arrested as a result of protest-related activity during the Republican National Convention, according to the city of Cleveland.

“We wanted to have some discourse in Public Square, but then pretty much cops just started following us everywhere, it was unbelievable,” said Pat Mahoney, a member of the local chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World, a leftist workers’ rights organization, and one of the marchers leading the way.

It started mid-afternoon near the Public Square fountain, the site of many intense debates between various groups this week. On Thursday, a group from the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church tried to argue with a small gathering of anarchists and Communists, but police quickly moved to separate the two side. The anarchists and Communists later tried to move to various points throughout the square to talk with other people but were repeatedly followed and surrounded by dozens of police.

AJ Vicens

The small group of leftists then set off on a winding route through downtown for more than an hour, with hundreds of police officers and media in tow. At several points, the protesters got into yelling matches with a group of counter-protesters, including Gunnar Thorderson of Salt Lake City, Utah. Thorderson said that all of the counter-protesters worked for Turning Point USA, a Chicago-based nonprofit group advocating for free markets, capitalism, and limited government.

“We saw the opportunity arise when they started their march to just follow them and counter-protest,” said Thorderson, 23, after the march concluded. “It worked well to create that discourse that the media loves to see.”

He said the “discourse” was mostly peaceful, although he added that at various points their signs were ripped out of their hands and that someone punched him in the chest.

“Those guys are out here just like me, and they have their ideas, and they want their voices to be heard,” he said.

Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Wayne Drummond wouldn’t reveal how many officers were involved, but he did say that it was enough to protect the rights of the marchers along with everyone else on the streets.

“Some folks have the tendency to say it’s overkill,” he said when discussing the heavy police presence. “We have a responsibility and a duty to protect everyone. Part of that is making sure we have sufficient amount of personnel to do that.”

One of the marchers disagreed.

“This is absurd,” said Edward Arnold, a student at nearby Case Western University who was marching with the leftists. “The more we moved, we were like magnets that attracted more reporters, and more cops, so it just got to point it was so massive we just couldn’t stay, so we went out into the streets.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate