It’s a blistering hot Sunday and the Democratic National Convention doesn’t even start until tomorrow, but a lively crowd of about 10,000 has already hit the streets here to protest for a variety of leftist causes and against Republican nominee Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As Breitbart’s Senior Investigative Reporter Aaron Klein reported exclusively, activists spent Saturday training for mass civil disobedience outside the convention.
Based on T-shirts and signs, a huge contingent of Bernie Sanders supporters were on the street during the Clean Energy March that began at City Hall and marched through the streets down to near Philadelphia’s old City Hall. Because of the heat, the crowd had dissipated to about 3,000-5,000 by the time it finished.
The crowd was noticeably larger than any protests outside of the Republican National Convention held in Cleveland. There are a number of possible reasons for this, including the fact that the Democratic National Convention has a larger natural constituency of activists than the Republicans. In other words, large community organizing and union groups would be at the DNC regardless.
Another factor is proximity; while Cleveland is comparatively remote, Philadelphia is a short train, bus or car ride from major East Coast cities like Washington DC, New York City, and even Boston. Philadelphia has its own activist community as well, adding to the larger crowd size.
Although today’s protest was loud but peaceful, as Breitbart News recently reported, the small protester numbers are significant because violent activists including the Black Bloc use the larger crowds to hide like “fleas on a dog” in the words of video journalist Rebel Pundit.
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