Protest march reaches the perimeter of Republican convention site

A few blocks from the security fence surrounding the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, hundreds of protesters gathered, advocating for the rights of Palestinians, immigrants, women, people of color and LGBTQ people. Neumann-Ortiz also said that “it’s undeniable” that Trump’s rhetoric has “contributed to a climate of increased violence and legitimized hate crimes by white nationalists.” Neumann-Ortiz condemned Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, his followers’ calls to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and “hateful and dehumanizing rhetoric” targeting immigrants during the 2024 campaign, which she connected to an increase in violent crimes against people of color and immigrants. “Defeating the Republican agenda is a matter of life and death for working and oppressed people,” said Kodi Guillory, a middle school science teacher from Chicago. “The Dobbs decision was a direct result of Trump’s presidency, in fact he takes pride in this,” said Hinckley during the press conference. With drums pounding, the crowd chanted an array of protest standards, including declaring that Milwaukee’s streets are “our streets.” Outside the Riverside Theater, operated by the Pabst Theater Group, protesters chanted, “Get up, get down, Milwaukee is a union town.” The front of the pack, dominated by pro-Palestine protesters, chanted against both Trump and President Joe Biden, saying “No Donald, No Joe, genocide has got to go.” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK, said a common thread connecting the disparate groups that joined the Coalition to March on the RNC was confronting militarism.