DAYTON, Ohio — Security is tight, law enforcement officials are patrolling NATO village and, like any other gathering with the eyes of the world focused in, protestors plan to make their voices heard.
Hersch Rothmel and Adriana Morales are organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL.
Come rain or shine, they’ll be protesting in Dayton.
“We are here because we are promoting peace and justice. We want an end to the endless wars. We are non-violent, and we are just trying to bring the community together,” Morales said.
The city has given the green light for a parking lot at 2nd and Jefferson outside of the NATO footprint to be used for protests.
“There’s no need for anybody to register,” said Major Chris Malson with the Dayton Police Department. “We’re not doing background checks. There’s no police interaction. They can come in, and that will be a location where they will be seen and heard by the delegates. So if they want to get their message to the people who are coming to attend, that will be the best location for them to go to.”
However, Rothmel and Morales said they won’t be using that lot.
Instead, they’ll be at Deeds Point Metro Park nearby.
“We have a permit for that area,” Rothmel said. “We want to bring people together to really speak about why working class people all across Dayton and all across the Midwest really need money for jobs, education, housing, healthcare, and not for endless war.”
That protest is scheduled for Sunday at noon and is expected to attract many people from Ohio and across the country.
“We want to march by the NATO village because we feel like we don’t want to be disruptive necessarily to the proceedings, but we want to make sure that our voice is heard, that every day people in Dayton are actually opposed to NATO taking over a large swath of downtown,” Rothmel said.
“They have a right to do it, I support that right, I’ll defend that right. Let’s keep it peaceful, let’s keep it as a protest, and we’ll all have a great week. We have plans in place to monitor those remotely and as long as they stay peaceful, they won’t even see a police officer anywhere near them,” Malson said.
“It’s going to be very peaceful, very disciplined, and we hope that a lot of folks come out,” Rothmel said.