Updated 7/14/2016: The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that officials in Cleveland have confirmed that protesters who show up to the Republican National Convention next week will be able to carry arms under the states existing open-carry laws.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson told reporters on Wednesday that open-carry laws will be upheld during the convention, but implied he wasn't necessarily happy about it"
Our intent is to follow the law. And if the law says you can have open carry, that’s what it says. Whether I agree with it or not is another issue.
Original story below
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, chairman of the New Black Panther Party Hashim Nzinga said that, if the law permits it, members of the organization will carry arms at the Republican National Convention later this month. The group is planning to have "a couple hundred" members show up to protest at the convention, according to Reuters.
In the interview, Nzinga told Reuters:
If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our second amendment rights because there are other groups threatening to be there that are threatening to do harm to us. If that state allows us to bear arms, the Panthers and the others who can legally bear arms will bear arms.
Reuters further reported that Ohio officials have said that protesters at the GOP National Convention, which will be held in Cleveland July 18 through 21, will legally be able to arm themselves under the state's existing open carry laws.
During the interview, Nzinga further told Reuters that the New Black Panther Party condemns the shooting of five police officers in Dallas last week, calling it a "massacre."
The New Black Panther Party was formed in the 1980s, and describes itself as a black power organization. The group is also anti-capitalist and anti-racist. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Party as "virulently racist and anti-Semetic."
The Republican National Committee and the New Black Panther Party did not immediately reply to Complex's requests for comment.
