TULSA,
Okla. (AP) — Supporters and detractors of President Donald Trump
continued to gather Friday in Tulsa, where Trump is scheduled to take
the stage for the first of his signature rallies during the coronavirus
pandemic.
Verbal clashes
sparked at times as hundreds of people converged amid a nationwide push
for racial justice and tensions over the continued health and economic
threats of COVID-19. And the gatherings happened on Juneteenth — a day
celebrating the end of slavery in the United States — in a city with a
long history of racial tension.
Trump’s event scheduled for Saturday night will be held just blocks
from the site of one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history, and
Black leaders in Tulsa say they fear the president’s visit could lead to violence.
Oklahoma’s
Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending
Trump’s rally in a 19,000-seat arena to wear a face mask and maintain
social distancing inside the arena to guard against the spread of the
coronavirus. The court ruled that the two local residents who asked that
the thousands expected at the BOK Center be required to take the
precautions couldn’t establish that they had a clear legal right to the
relief they sought. In a concurring opinion, two justices noted that the
state’s plan to reopen its economy is “permissive, suggestive and
discretionary.”
The
request was made by John Hope Franklin for Reconciliation, a nonprofit
that promotes racial equality, and the Greenwood Centre Ltd., which owns
commercial real estate, on behalf of the two locals described as having
compromised immune systems and being particularly vulnerable to
COVID-19.
While city
workers erected a high metal fence Friday to completely barricade the
Trump rally site, tempers heated as several Black Tulsans walked up to a
corner where the Trump faithful shouted religious messages through
bullhorns.
Abrienne Smith
squared off with one after the other of the Trump backers, talking
about killings of African Americans. Smith said she did it for her Black
son.
“I am worried
about him. He’s 4. I am scared for his life because of stuff like this,”
she said while pointing at the Trump supporters.
Pamela
Drake, an older African American woman, wore a red “Make America Great
Again” and carried a small American flag as she walked in sprinkling
rain to claim a place in line for the Trump rally. She and her friend,
Kathy Minartz, said they had no fear of catching the coronavirus or of
violent protests.
“When you have the Lord in your life, you’re protected,” Minartz said.
Meanwhile,
Tulsa’s Republican mayor, G.T. Bynum, rescinded a day-old curfew he had
imposed for the area around the BOK Center where some had camped out for days already ahead of the rally. The curfew took effect Thursday night and was supposed to remain until Sunday morning, however Trump tweeted Friday that he had spoken to Bynum and that the mayor told him he would rescind it.
Bynum said he
got rid of the curfew at the request of the U.S. Secret Service. In his
executive order establishing the curfew, Bynum said he was doing so at
the request of law enforcement who had intelligence that “individuals
from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent
behavior in other States are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for
purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.”
The mayor didn’t elaborate as to which groups he meant, and police Capt. Richard Meulenberg declined to identify any.
Although Trump
has characterized those who have clashed with law enforcement after
George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis as organized, radical-left “thugs”
engaging in domestic terrorism, an Associated Press analysis found that the vast majority of people arrested during recent protests were locals.
Trump on
Friday morning tweeted: “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters
or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be
treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It
will be a much different scene!”
White House
press secretary Kayleigh McEnany clarified later that Trump’s tweet did
not refer to all protesters, rather only to those who are “violent.”
Bynum’s order said crowds of 100,000 or more were expected in the area around the rally.
Trump’s
campaign manager, Brad Parscale, told Fox News on Friday that those
unable to get into the arena are expected to attend what he described as
a “festival” outside where the president might also appear. The Trump
campaign said it takes “safety seriously,” noting that organizers are
providing masks, hand sanitizers and doing temperature checks for all
attendees.
McEnany
declined to say whether Trump was taking any additional personal
precautions ahead of the rally. The nation’s top public health
professionals strongly recommend wearing a mask when social distancing
can’t be maintained, as will be the case Saturday.
The city’s health director, Dr. Bruce Dart, has said he would like to see the rally postponed, noting that large indoor gatherings are partially to blame for the recent spread of the virus in Tulsa and Tulsa County.
The rally was originally scheduled for Friday, but it was moved back a day following an uproar that it otherwise would have happened on Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., and in a city where a 1921 white-on-black attack killed as many as 300 people.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who eulogized Floyd, spoke in Tulsa as hundreds gathered to observe Juneteenth. He challenged Trump directly, using the president’s own words.
“It’s lowlifes
that shoot unarmed people, Mr. President,” Sharpton said. “You couldn’t
be talking about us. Because we fought for the country when it wouldn’t
fight for us.”
Oklahoma has seen a recent spike in coronavirus cases, setting a daily high on Thursday
of 450. Health officials on Friday reported 125 new confirmed cases of
COVID-19 in Tulsa County, which is the most of any county in Oklahoma.
Statewide, there were 352 new cases and one new coronavirus death
reported Friday, raising the state’s total number of confirmed cases
since the pandemic began to 9,706 and its death toll to 367.
The actual
number of people who have contracted the virus is likely higher because
many people have not been tested and studies suggest that people can be
infected but not feel sick.
For most
people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up
within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with
existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe
symptoms and be fatal.
___
Murphy
reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers John Mone in
Tulsa, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Zeke Miller in Washington
contributed to this report.
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