Tulsa mayor declares Trump rally civil emergency

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Supporters can cheer on President Trump, but then they better get home.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, a Republican, declared a civil emergency Thursday and announced a curfew near the arena where Trump plans to hold a campaign rally on Saturday.

Bynum cited recent “civil unrest,” expected “crowds in excess of 100,000” in the vicinity of the rally and opposition protests in his decision to place a federal exclusion zone for a six-block radius near the arena.

“I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows 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,” Bynum wrote in the executive order.

The arena is also asking the campaign for a written plan outlining how it will incorporate social distancing and other "health and safety" steps.

The BOK Center, which can hold up to 20,000 and had people lining up outside of it more than two days ahead of the Saturday rally, cited an uptick in coronavirus cases in Tulsa, Okla., as the reason why it requested the plan. The campaign was already going to provide masks and hand sanitizer to each attendee, and there would be temperature checks at the door.

But GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox News she believed masks would be optional and there has been no apparent social distancing plan or similar system for the indoor event.

More than two days before the rally, Fox News spotted Trump supporters already lining up to camp outside the venue.

Supporters have been seen lining the street since Monday.

“So you are prepared to sit out here for five-six days?” a local reporter with KFOR asked a group holding up a Trump 2020 flag this week.

“We’re here till after the rally,” one woman told the reporter.

According to the Trump campaign, more than 1,000,000 people have registered online for the first-come-first-serve rally, which has a capacity of just under 20,000. Those supporters were required to sign a waiver releasing the Trump campaign from responsibility for possible exposure to the coronavirus.

"Looking at a 2nd event in town to get more people to be w/@realDonaldTrump," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted as the number of people registered surpassed 200,000. "Gonna be GREAT in the most open state in the nation!"

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Trump’s upcoming rally in Tulsa can go ahead as planned despite concerns about coronavirus -- just as Trump announced that a curfew in the city had been lifted for the rally.

“I just spoke to the highly respected Mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the #MAGA Rally. Enjoy yourselves - thank you to Mayor Bynum!” the president tweeted.

Bynum, a Republican, had declared a civil emergency and announced a curfew near the arena where Trump plans to hold a campaign rally on Saturday.

Around the same time as his tweet, the state’s Supreme Court ruled against the request to force everyone attending to wear a mask and stay at least six feet apart from one another -- a policy that would have complicated the massive event with thousands of people.

The court ruled that the two local residents among those filing the suit couldn’t establish that they have a clear legal right to the relief they sought. In a concurring opinion, two justices wrote that the state’s reopening plan is “permissive, suggestive and discretionary.”

“Therefore, for lack of any mandatory language in the (plan), we are compelled to deny the relief requested,” that opinion said.

Earlier in the day, Trump pointedly warned “anarchists” and other “agitators” not to disrupt the rally.

“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,” Trump tweeted Friday. “It will be a much different scene.”

Oklahoma Supreme Court allows Trump rally to proceed as planned, as president says Tulsa curfew being lifted

Trump does not have the power to lift a local curfew or order local law enforcement on how to treat rioters.

On the eve of US President Donald Trump’s much publicised re-election rally thousands of supporters have arrived in the city, with a distinct lack of face masks and social distancing.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 572304e502
Initial reports from downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma have described scenes in which hundreds of supporters have already began lining up outside the centre, huddling together to avoid the rain, openly chatting, sharing food, blankets and chairs, with the majority not wearing masks.
Speaking to NBC News, one elderly attendee, Mary Legan explained why she felt comfortable at the high-density event.
“When you’re in your 70s, you can't go hide in your basement. You don't have that many more years,” said the Oklahoma resident. “If Trump felt comfortable having it here, then I’m comfortable.”
Another Trump supporter in his 60s was also apathetic about contracting the virus which has killed over 121,000 Americans to date.
“I don’t fear anything. If today is the day I die, today is the day I die," said David Riniker.
"I'm not paranoid, I'm not afraid."

tulsa is a giant dog whistle, it had to have been chosen BECAUSE of the genocide which occurred there a century earlier. he is pulling out all the stops to get his base out and angry.

Careful, it isn't politically correct to call a spade a spade or a racist racist these days. You might offend the allegedly anti-PC crowd.

It's strange how much publicly voiced concern over this virus transmission there is over a small event in one city, as opposed to the lack of publicly voiced concern over the protests and riots in the past week or so...Objectively, it looks like it's the event, not the virus transmission that is the reason for the "concern".

It's strange how much publicly voiced concern over this virus transmission there is over a small event in one city, as opposed to the lack of publicly voiced concern over the protests and riots in the past week or so...Objectively, it looks like it's the event, not the virus transmission that is the reason for the "concern".