Debate spills out on to streets

CLEVELAND: Oskar Masco drops his backpack, pulls out a placard, holds it up over his head and gets to work, as he plans for the duration of the Republican convention.

CLEVELAND: Oskar Masco drops his backpack, pulls out a placard, holds it up over his head and gets to work, as he plans for the duration of the Republican convention. His placard read: “Trump Terrorises.”

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He is a lone wolf in a sea of protestors, mostly at Public Square, which is close to the venue hosting the convention.

Some arrive in small groups, some in horde sand still others in large rallies. Most of them look well-funded and organised, which is not illegal.

Masco, a rickshaw-driver from California, is self-funding his protest, like the Republican nominee he is opposing.

A man in a large sun hat came by holding a man on a leash, walking on all four sand pretending to be a dog. He invited people to kick the “human dog” if they wanted Trump to win.

He was a Trump supporter, he said, and was soon yelling back at three anti-Trump protestors, joined soon by an African- American man who said he was supporting Trump.

Masco slipped into the rally, to become part of the larger collection, make a larger impact, catch the eyes perhaps of a TV crew or enterprising stand-alone bloggers.

“Trump is dividing the country,” Masco said, “Turning people against people, against Muslims, against Mexicans.”

Asahalf-Mexican himself, it’s quite personal, he added.

As the man walking the “human dog” yelled back at a protest or, Masco walked around them and held up a hastily scribbled placard that said: “This is what white privilege looks like.”

Needless to say the man and his man-dog were both whites.

And they looked a bit concerned when Pierre Nappier, a burly African American, came to their help.