Outrage, demands to cancel and plans for protest flowed through Riverside on Friday, July 16, a day before Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are set to hold an America First Rally at the Riverside Convention Center.
While a city councilman sympathized with the rally’s opponents, he said the city cannot cancel the Saturday evening, July 17, event.
The rally, part of a nationwide tour featuring two out-of-state lawmakers with reputations for far-right politics and spreading misinformation, moved to the city after being kicked out of an Orange County venue earlier this month.
Organizers on Thursday announced the rally would take place in Riverside, and while they withheld the location citing security concerns, the CEO of the company that runs the city-owned convention center confirmed the downtown facility would play host.
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Riverside City Councilmember Ronaldo Fierro objected to a rally featuring Greene and Gaetz occurring at a city-owned facility.
“The hateful and racist rhetoric that will be perpetrated at this event by these two well-known extremists has absolutely no place in our City,” Fierro said in an emailed statement late Thursday.
Fierro said the city cannot prevent the event from going forward.
“The Riverside City Council does not have the legal ability to stop or cancel the booking of this event,” he said via email.
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City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, who was sworn into office Tuesday, July 13, after her June election win, said she was “shocked and disappointed” when she learned about the event at about 2 p.m. Thursday. Shortly after that, she said, she called for an emergency Riverside City Council meeting to address the matter. That session would have been held Friday, she said.
However, Cervantes said she needed three councilmembers’ support to schedule an emergency meeting and only one member, Mayor Pro Tem Gaby Plascencia, endorsed her call for one.
Cervantes also called for the city to “immediately re-evaluate” its arrangement with Raincross for managing the convention center.
Full article at https://www.pe.com/2021/07/16/calls-mount-for-cancellation-of-matt-gaetz-marjorie-taylor-greene-rally-in-riverside/
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