Reporting from Cleveland — Every time Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was asked this week about the calmer-than-expected protests outside of the Republican National Convention, he responded with a muted, steady-as-she-goes response.
On Friday, the city’s top cop finally exhaled.
“Good morning … Cleveland rocks!” he said to reporters.
After weeks of concern that protests outside the convention would turn dangerous in the midst of a vitriolic campaign season, culminating in the nomination Thursday of Donald Trump, and increased tensions over violence abroad and at home, Cleveland leaders took a victory lap after their public safety success story, completing the week with few arrests or reports of violence.
“We planned for this for a year and a half,” Williams said. “We worked it up and down for a year and a half.”
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During five days of mostly tame demonstrations, police made just 23 arrests, surprisingly few compared with conventions in recent years in New York, Minnesota and Florida, all where arrest totals numbered in the hundreds. Aside from a fracas Wednesday over a group’s attempt to burn a U.S. flag, the drama in Cleveland this week was confined to the convention hall itself.
Many credited an overwhelming police presence of more than 3,000 officers from around the country and the department’s use of bicycles to create mobile blockades with keeping tense protests from growing violent. The city also seemed to take a hands-off approach to marchers who took to downtown’s streets without permits. Officers declared unlawful assemblies just twice, even backing off when protesters attempted to run around, or at times through, one of the department’s bicycle blockades.
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Cleveland Police Officers stand guard at the entrance to the Quick Loans Arena for the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from ‘Stand Together Against Trump’ make their voices heard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Party march around the downtown area during the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Party march around the downtown area during the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Men open-carrying rifles watches Donald Trump give his acceptance speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A bystander films the protesters from ‘Stand Together Against Trump’ at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A woman covers her ears as protesters march by during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Police officers sit together as protests have calmed down at the Public Square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters get into a heated argument at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Tony McConaghy, from left, Basheer Jones, Randy Grass, pray together at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A Trump supporter watches protesters standing in the fountain area of the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters stand in the fountain area of the Public Square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A protesters lays on the ground to rest in front of a line of police officers standing guard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Police officers stand guard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters get into a shouting match with counter-protesters during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A protesters, who declined to give his name, sports a flower during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Father Jose S. Landaverde, 45, a priest with the Diocese of Quincy in Chicago, with Stand Together Against Trump March, during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the Stand Together Against Trump March walk within shouting distance of the Quicken Loans arena during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Protesters supporting socialism get into a shouting match with protesters supporting capitalism, during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the Stand Together Against Trump March make their way through an underpass, which is on the permitted parade route during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Police officers move in to arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party attempting to burn an American flag during a demonstration.
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Police officers arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party before they could burn a U.S. flag at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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Chaos broke out Wednesday near the entrance to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland when a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags. Riot police moved in to arrest at least eight people believed to be anarchists.
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A police officer on Wednesday tells the crowd outside Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena to back up. The officer is holding a flag confiscated from the Revolutionary Community Party before members of the group could burn it during a demonstration at the site of the Republican National Convention.
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Police officers arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party before they could burn a flag during a demonstration at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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Riot police try to take control of the situation when chaos breaks out near the entrance to Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena after a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags.
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At least eight people were arrested after a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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A police officer can be seen bleeding after protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party were arrested Wednesday at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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Police officers arrest members of the Revolutionary Community Party outside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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A protester smiles for her mug shot while being processed near the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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Police officers from Georgia form a human barrier during a protest by the Revolutionary Community Party outside the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday.
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Protesters from the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance hold hands to keep photographers from stepping closer to their long “Wall off Trump” banner outside the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance march with a “Wall off Trump” banner.
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Protesters hold an anti-Trump banner outside the convention site in Cleveland.
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A protester gets into an argument with Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams outside the 2016 Republican National Convention on July 19.
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Protesters sprint down a back alley to get ahead of the police as they try heading into the convention area during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19.
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Police officers use their bicycles to push back protesters and photographers during a confrontation on the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19.
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A Michigan state police officer pushes back photographers at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Pro-Trump supporters exchange words with anti-Trump protesters at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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A protester shouts at a Trump supporter in downtown Cleveland.
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Protesters yell, “Black lives matter!” during a demonstration outside the convention hall in Cleveland.
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Police officers separate rival groups of demonstrators.
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A flower is held up as a protesters are escorted away in Cleveland.
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Members of Bikers for Trump scold a protestor for allowing the American flag to touch the ground.
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Demonstrators and law enforcement officers mingle on a public square.
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Tevor Leis, exercising his Ohio open carry rights, stands armed in Public Square in Cleveland, during the second day of the Republican convention.
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West Ohio Minutemen, an armed militia, march through the Public Square during the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Police officers stand guard with assault rifles at the Public Square during the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Lou Pumphrey, a U.S. Army E4 is attending the convention and brought along his peace flag.
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Stevedore Crawford, Jr. of Delaware, Ohio, shouts at police officers during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the “End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice,” make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the “End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice,” make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Protesters from the “End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice,” make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Anti-Trump protesters cross a barricade as march in downtown Cleveland, a block away from where the Republican National Convention is being held.
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Anti-Trump protesters march in downtown Cleveland near the Quicken Loans Arena where the Republican National Convention is being held.
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Randy Grant from Los Angeles say the pledge of allegiance at the start of the America First Unity Rally at Settlers Landing Park during the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
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Joshua Glaspie, from Chicago is relishing the opportunity to open carry his weapon, a Kimber Ultra Carry 2 9mm handgun, at the America First Unity Rally in Cleveland.
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Elan Stoltzfuz, holds his rifle up for photographers at Settlers Landing Park for the America First Unity Rally in Cleveland.
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Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a ‘Stop Trump’ march to Quicken Loans Arena for Monday’s opening of the Republican National Convention.
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Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a ‘Stop Trump’ march to Quicken Loans Arena for Monday’s opening of the Republican National Convention.
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Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a ‘Stop Trump’ march to Quicken Loans Arena for Monday’s opening of the Republican National Convention.
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Security personnel greet protesters during an anti-Donald Trump march toward downtown Cleveland on the eve of the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2016.
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Anti-Trump protesters.
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Members of the antiwar group Code Pink stand in front of the police guarding the anti-Trump protesters.
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Police officers in protective gear. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )
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About 200 anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters, including Henry Edward of Detroit, march through downtown Cleveland.
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Protesters and police.
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Protesters in Cleveland.
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Cleveland police wait for a 2nd Amendment rally, but few people showed up for the event at Public Square in downtown.
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Steve Thacker, 57, center, a retired Marine, is interviewed by numerous journalists in downtown Cleveland, where a 2nd Amendment rally was scheduled. Two participants showed up for the rally.
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Brian Lange, a Trump supporter from Lima, Ohio, buys a flag in Cleveland to show his support for the 2nd Amendment.
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Spencer Tunick photographs a group of nude women holding large round mirrors near Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena, where the 2016 Republican National Convention will start Monday. The photo shoot, on the eve of the convention, is part of Tunick’s large-scale art installation “Everything She Says Means Everything.”
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) “Most of that activity, we knew, would not be at the designated parade route,” Mayor Frank Jackson said, referring to the area zoned for protests, a path many activists called a “bridge to nowhere” as it routed demonstrators far from the convention site.
“We knew that they would go in the street when they didn’t have a permit, and we knew that we would allow them to do it,” Jackson said.
The successful week could also serve to help heal the image of a police department that became part of the divisive national conversation on law enforcement and race after the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 and a federal report that found officers routinely misused force against black residents. Williams said he hoped a week that largely saw people posing for pictures with officers rather than fighting with them will underscore an improved relationship between city officers and the people they police.
“People kind of pigeonhole the city of Cleveland with things that happen around the country,” he said. “I think people underestimate the support people have for this division of police.”
Civil rights advocates were less enthusiastic about the department’s long-term gains. The agency performed well during the week but also benefited from the underwhelming number of protesters who traveled to Cleveland, said Christine Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio.
“There were three police and two photojournalists for every protester,” Link said.
She also warned that the department’s ability to handle out-of-town protests while under the watchful lens of a ubiquitous media presence said little about its ability to interact with residents.
“It remains to be seen. I don’t think that this is an all new Cleveland Police Department,” she said, adding that the city’s powerful police union has still been largely resistant to reforms outlined in a 2014 federal consent decree.
“The posture of the union leadership … is still hostile to the consent decree [and] often uncooperative,” she said. “So this, to me, is a one-off.”
Whatever the long-term effects, the friendly vibe between cops and citizens was still present in downtown Cleveland on Friday. As vendors packed political memorabilia into box trucks and others enjoyed the newfound space to breathe in the absence of police marching the pavement, 23-year-old Cleveland resident D.J. Matthews nodded his head in approval when asked about the chaotic week that wasn’t.
“They did good. They did their job and there wasn’t that much drama,” he said, pausing to wave to an officer riding past on a bicycle. “Y’all did good. Y’all did real good.”
james.queally@latimes.com
Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.
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