The Associated Press has an article out on measures that Tampa and Charlotte are taking to deal with the possibility of armed protestors at the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention this summer. On Charlotte:
The issue is a more complicated in Charlotte. The city in January adopted an ordinance allowing it to set up “extraordinary event zones” – designated areas where people won’t be allowed to carry backpacks and other items.
The city wanted to ban guns in those zones. State law, though, allows people to carry concealed weapons – unless they’re at a parade or protest.
“The zone is going to be far bigger than a demonstration area. So if I have a demonstration that marches us down main street, but the extraordinary event zone covers all of downtown, what about the area outside the demonstration? That’s the piece that been hitting us here,” said Mark Newbold, an attorney with the Charlotte police department.
That’s a potentially significant issue, for a variety of reasons, though not one the UPoR seems interested in talking about. Though to be fair, we still have no idea exactly what impact DNC security measures will have on Uptown employers.
