US President Donald Trump has threatened unspecified action against any protesters who show up at his weekend re-election rally at Tulsa in Oklahoma.
Key points:
- Mr Trump made the threat ahead of the first major rally of his re-election campaign
- More than 100,000 people are expected at the Tulsa rally on Sunday, Australian time
- The mass gathering has sparked fresh fears about coronavirus transmission
"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!" Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.
A spokesman for Mr Trump's campaign, Marc Lotter, said the warning was directed at violent agitators, not peaceful protests.
"The President supports peaceful protests and people who are exercising their First Amendment rights," Mr Lotter said.
"If we see what we've seen in other cities with rioting, looting, setting buildings on fire and physical violence, then that's going to be something that's going to be met by police."
Protesters have been shot with rubber bullets, pushed, beaten and tear-gassed in recent weeks as protests, sometimes violent, over deaths in police custody, have erupted across the US.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said violent protests were unacceptable.
"What he was meaning are violent protesters, anarchists, looters — the kind of lawlessness we saw before," Ms McEnany said.
The rally is Mr Trump's first major re-election event and comes amid warnings that the coronavirus outbreak in the US is far from over.
More than 100,000 people are expected to gather in the area of the rally on Saturday (Sunday morning Australian time).
Tulsa Health Department director Dr Bruce Dart said he wished Mr Trump's rally could be postponed because of record daily increases of COVID-19 cases.
"COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently," Dr Dart told local media. "I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn't as large a concern as it is today."
Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum had ordered a curfew for an area covering several city blocks around the venue, but later rescinded the order.
"Today, the Secret Service asked the City to lift the curfew order this weekend. In compliance with this request, the City has rescinded the order," the city of Tulsa said in a statement.
Mr Trump thanked Mr Bynum in a tweet for cancelling the curfew.
Trump rally at the site of bloody massacre
Mr Trump's choice of Tulsa for the rally has been criticised by Black Lives Matter activists and his Democratic opponents.
The city is the site of one of the bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence in US history, when white mobs massacred black residents and destroyed black businesses in 1921.
The city's once-thriving black commercial district of Greenwood — also known as "Black Wall Street" — never fully recovered after what is remembered as one of the country's most destructive and deadly white attacks on black communities.
The rally was also originally scheduled for June 19, or Juneteenth, a date that marks the abolition of slavery at the end of the American Civil War.
But Mr Trump moved the rally to June 20.
"Many of my African-American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out," Mr Trump said on Twitter.
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Empty lawns and memorials to the destroyed neighbourhood, where as many as 300 people were killed, still dominate the Greenwood district, and black community leaders said they still worried Mr Trump's rally could spark violence.
Veteran civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton said Mr Trump's tweet about protesters was "disrespectful", especially following the recent deaths of George Floyd and another black man, Rayshard Brooks, in Atlanta.
"To have a threat like that, you're provoking an incident, and you're provoking an interaction that is unnecessary," Reverend Sharpton said.
During the Juneteenth celebrations, Ivonna Mims, a Tulsa registered nurse, said she noticed far more white visitors turned out for this year's festivities than in past years.
It reflects the racial makeup of protests that played out across the US in recent weeks after the killing of Mr Floyd.
Like several others at the Juneteenth celebration, Ms Mims said she was glad Mr Trump changed the date of his rally.
"That rally is going to happen regardless, so I don't want that to overshadow the significance of what we're trying to build here, the unity," Ms Mims said.
Wires/ABC
"Scene" - Google News
June 20, 2020 at 09:41AM
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Donald Trump threatens 'a much different scene' for protesters and 'lowlifes' at re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma - ABC News
"Scene" - Google News
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