That sounds like most of the folks in Occupy or the BLM. In Philly, the homeless are being rounded up and relocated before the Dem convention.
Law-enforcement officers in Cleveland are casting a wide net for security threats ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention—including within the city’s homeless populations.
On Tuesday night, police visited at least two encampments in the city, asking homeless people to be on the lookout for outsiders who may be pretending to be homeless, according to Brian Davis, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
“Police have been visiting some of the sites on the outskirts of the event zone to ask them to be on the lookout for people who may look like they’re homeless, but [are] not, in fact, homeless,” Davis says. Police are also “asking existing homeless populations to report any suspicious behavior,” he adds, noting that police do not normally visit the encampments.
A representative for the Cleveland Police Department would not provide any information about those visits, saying, “Suffice it to say that we have many security measures in place and will utilize our intelligence resources during the course of the convention.”
Law-enforcement concerns may be warranted. The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless itself has distributed flyers to homeless people that warn that “dangerous agitators” from out of town may try to blend into homeless camps and communities. The organization is further concerned that demonstrators may try to take up beds within homeless shelters.
“The shelters are completely full, which is unusual, for the men’s system to be completely full in July,” Davis says. “Normally there is a smaller number of people. In light of that, shelters are doing extensive intake to prevent tourists from using a shelter bed. So going back into, ‘Are you really homeless? When was the last time you stayed?’ and being very rigorous about intake.”