Toledo LOVE Fest: Anti-Trump Rally

As brought to his caravan of , and , Toledoans met him with a fest, declaring resoundingly that his mongering is not welcome in .  Here is my favorite picture from the rally:

Top Pun Loves Muslims, Welcomes Immigrants, and Works to End Racism

Earlier, I met these two while they were circling the block in their car.  I witnessed them being harassed by a cop for reportedly not turning immediately on a green light and holding up traffic. Ironically, the biggest lineup of cars that I saw at the corner were produced by the cop stopping them for a couple minutes. Not pictured is a sticker on my back that says, “I .”

I LOVE MUSLIMS

We had someone else take a similar picture of us with one of the 's phones (you can see this on the left of this pic).  I asked if they could share the pic with me on facebook.  They responded that they don't do social .  They prefer to keep it simple and real.  I THIS!  This is WAY better than getting a copy of their pic.  And, as it turns out, the love karma and sharing mojo, sent this picture my way anyways.

In unrelated karma, the police were out in force, the only ones dressed for a riot.  I couldn't help but notice that the vast majority of the police for the vast majority of the were facing the LOVE fest participants, not the Trump designated side of the street.  Hmmm…who do the police think are the threat, and whom are they focused on protecting?

Police Lineup

I was instructed by two separate police officers at two different times to return to the other side of the street, the protesters' side.  There were plenty of legal observers (lawyers) .  I spoke with several of them.  They confirmed that it is , an unconstitutional limit of and peaceable assembly, to partition public spaces into zones.  In years past, the police set up “ zones” (sic), areas cordoned off with police tape to box up and protesters.  Such “ zones” have  been ruled unconstitutional.  The legal observers are making a report, and, hopefully, this will add to the training of officers as to their legitimate, legal duties.

Thanks to a grant from Homeland (emblazoned on the side of the armored vehicle), a -style armored truck was parked adjacent to the demonstration area.  This was accompanied by a set of more-heavily-equipped police officers ready to leap into action if there was some type of invasion that a couple dozen policemen (there were no cops) couldn't handle.  This all strikes me as a great opportunity to normalize the militarization of local police forces.  Would we call a nation patrolled with armored trucks the “land of the free?”

Military-style police armored truck

If you would like to see more photos from Toledo's LOVE fest and anti-Trump rally, check this out.  There were plenty of Toledoans and wonderful signs of love and messages.  May peace and love break out everywhere!

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