As Milwaukee Beagle has said since our beginning, the RNC was not the overwhelmingly positive experience that Mayor Johnson and Visit Milwaukee sold it to us as. Economic underpromises aside, we must also discuss the violence of cops and Republicans. Despite the efforts to chill free speech, folks were able to rally in resistance. The RNC is behind us and now the real fight to keep the fascists out of office begins.

Everyone with a brain and a heart knew that inviting the Republican National Convention to Milwaukee was a bad idea. We were promised an economic boon and safety (for the fascist attendees, at least.) We’ve gotten shuttered stores and put up checkpoints out of a shitty World War II film. And now a loved and well-known member of our community is dead – at the hand of out-of-state police who shouldn’t be “working” outside of the state-mandated “safety zone.”

Now that the Fascist Convention is here, it could be useful to remind ourselves that whatever happens, Mayor Cavalier Johnson bears the full responsibility and we need to hold him accountable for inviting these fascists to our city. We have the receipts Cavalier Johnson. Whatever happens during this convention you are to blame. We are not going to let you hide from your broken promises and responsibility.

Silence in the face of racist murder is a form of violence. The convention media spectacle eclipsing the national spotlight Mr Crump and D’Vontaye’s family are drawing unto his death is an example of this silencing violence already occurring here thanks to the RNC.

The RNC clearly cannot be trusted. Once again we see Mayor Johnson either being grossly ignorant of reality, or outright lying to enrich business elites.

Milwaukee progressives, leftists, and antifascists are well situated to prevent a Trump presidency. First, we are living in a swing state. We are also (unfortunately) hosting the Republican National Convention, and only an hour and a half from the Democratic National Convention. Poll margins and political dialogs here are watched closely by election strategists and pundits. What Milwaukeeans say and do during the campaign season matters. Now, I don’t want to overstate our power, but we do have more than other people who live in deep blue states, or left enclaves far from the conventions. With this power comes responsibility.

While efforts to gather, hold each other safe, and defend our city are vital and encouraging, they don’t address the core problem: this should never have happened. We cannot let the people who put us at risk off the hook. The community response to the RNC needs to include holding the elected officials who invited the fascists here responsible for what goes down during their party in our city.

Beginnings are hard. Some of them you’re forced into: being born, your first day at school, the first time you have to pay your own rent. This is different: we’re voluntarily starting something new, we aren’t sure how it will go, but we hope it’s worth the effort.