The streets of Charlotte in the blocks around the Convention Hall have been rerouted and redesigned. The only vehicles are forklifts, generators, and trucks carrying equipment. The city streets are now one long twisting impromptu warehouse. This ad hoc infrastructure supports the massive outlay of power, food and labor that goes into producing the carnival atmosphere that persists throughout the Convention.
And to maintain the other atmosphere–the “don’t step over the dotted line or we’ll shoot you”–Charlotte has shipped in cops from all across the country, from places as close as Raleigh and Richmond to as far-flung as Massachusetts.
Over the next few days I will be posting my observations and pictures of these imported guns.
Apparently, some of them are being forced to work 12-hour shifts, quartered in overstuffed dorm rooms, and given terrible detail in the torrential rain that has intermittently plagued the Convention.
Despite the heavy security and the ambience of overzealous scrutiny all around, the police have been told to arrest those who pose a direct danger to others. Given the seas of demonstrators and crazies sure to descend on the city in the next few days, the powers that be appear to have decided it’s not worth it to fill up the holding cells with the casual pot smoker or open-container violator.
That said, all police, including those from other states, have been deputized…so there is still the sense that the police should be equipped with all the enforcement tools possible….