Tulsa: June 2020 Archives

My family would like to have gone to the rally, but it was too soon to want to be around 18,000 people, or to stand outside for hours in the hot sun without a good chance of getting in. Hearing about hundreds of thousands of ticket requests reinforced the feeling that it would have been unpleasantly crowded and possibly futile.

We decided to drive downtown and have a look around. We got into the downtown area at about 2:20 pm. I drove us into downtown on 11th Street, up Boston Ave to 3rd, west to the barricade at Boulder, north and east through the Bob Wills District, north on Elgin through the OSU-Tulsa campus, south on Greenwood to 1st, through the Blue Dome district. I was surprised that there weren't that many cars downtown, especially with so many parking facilities blocked off. It was an early indication that the President might not be speaking to a full house, unless people were shuttled in from remote parking lots by bus. There weren't many people walking around either; I assumed it was because the attendees had already moved into the secured area, since it was nearly time for the doors to open at 3 pm.

On the west side of Boston Avenue between 5th and 6th, the new DGX (Dollar General Express) store was boarded up, as was Farmer's Insurance, Decopolis, and Jimmy John's. Elote was closing at 4 pm, and Poke Love had a sign saying it would be closed Friday and Saturday. Shops on the east side of Boston weren't boarded up. The vast majority of downtown businesses we passed were not covered with plywood.

At the Greenwood Cultural Center, we noticed a small event involving a few hundred people that seemed to be ending. The Black Wall Street Memorial had been covered and wrapped tightly with a sign that read, "This is sacred ground, not a photo-op." Evidently those responsible didn't want to give Vice President Pence the chance to pay his respects and possibly seem compassionate and human (when they're certain that he isn't).

We decided to park and walk around the perimeter to see what was going on. We found a space on 8th Street just east of Main, which was not too far away, and walked up Boulder to where everything seemed to be happening. There were lots of vendors selling buttons and flags, hats and T-shirts, some pro- and anti-Trump protesters and some street evangelists, but no one was blocking the gate at 4th and Cheyenne. Boulder was pedestrianized between 3rd and 5th, and 4th was closed to cars between Boulder and the entrance to the secured area at Cheyenne. We noticed Oklahoma National Guard members staging in the Arvest parking garage at 5th and Boulder. National Guard, Tulsa Police, and Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were visible.

Coney Island was boarded up, but Orpha's Lounge was open for business. There were a few small marquees along that block of 4th, including one belonging to Info Wars, and there seemed to be a broadcast in progress. Nearer to the gate at 4th and Cheyenne there were numerous empty lawnchairs (some folded, some deployed), coolers, and trash, the detritus of those who had arrived early to be first in line to get into the arena.

If we'd wanted to, we could have strolled right in at that point and joined the rally. (This was at roughly 3 pm.) There was no line at the gate. As we all have contact with people at particular risk for CCP Bat Virus, we opted not to go in. If we had known how many available seats there were in the upper tier, with room to spread out from other people, we might have chanced it. (If I'd known that Nigel Farage was in the house, I certainly would have gone in.) This was at about 3. We walked back to Main, and north to 3rd to see if we could get a better glimpse of the entrance to the BOK Center, but we couldn't see, as the street was blocked off to vehicles and pedestrians at Boulder, two blocks east. When we came back by 4th Street at about 3:30, it was still clear sailing to get into the gate.

I've heard reports of people being refused entrance, but there's some indication that this occurred around 6 pm. I'm trying to track down reports. My suspicion is that people watching the coverage realized that there was plenty of space available, made their way downtown, but got there after the gates were closed as the President was about to arrive at the BOK Center. Was this a planned closure for security purposes or, as some rumors suggest, because protesters jammed up security to keep more people from getting in? I have been sending messages to some of the people who say they tried to get in but could not, to get details and clarification. (UPDATE: My suspicion has been confirmed by one reply: They were attempting to get in, with tickets, between 6 pm and 7 pm, after their friends had texted with pictures to show that there was still plenty of room. Word was that there were "not enough screeners" and so the gates were closed. Trying to find out what that means and where that information originated.)

Gary Eubanks, who had made it into the secured area, noticed that around 5 o'clock that no one was manning the temperature screening station, and you couldn't go on to the Secret Service security checkpoint until you had been checked for a fever. He also said that every other seat in the arena had been blocked off initially, and that even after passing through the temperature and security checkpoints, attendees were being held outside the BOK Center entrance and only allowed into the building in groups of 100 at long intervals. I have reached out to BOK Center and ASM Global, which has the contract to manage the center, for their response to these reports and for a timeline of changes affecting those attempting to attend the rally.

Back to our journey: After we got back to our car, a little before 4 pm, we drove down Boston Ave. -- Mrs. DeHaven's Flower Shop and The Gadget Company were boarded up -- and noticed a Trump Baby balloon floating above 18th and Boston. When we got there, there were two balloons. A counter-event in Veterans' Park had a few marquees set up and a handful of people; this was at about 4 pm.

My complete album of photos and videos from outside the Trump Tulsa rally is here on Flickr.

MORE: Tim Murtaugh, communications director of Trump 2020, tweeted video of an MSNBC report of protesters causing the 4th and Cheyenne gate to be closed not long after we left the area. Here's what the MSNBC reporter said; the time bug on screen indicates 4:03 to 4:04 pm CDT.

And again, one of these gates -- there are three places where you can enter to get to the BOK Center, three gates -- this one has now been shut, because there was some kind of incident, there were Black Lives Matter protesters who made their way here, and they had a very brief standoff, a very brief standoff with the police, who were backed by the National Guard, and they were slowly moved back. They're still slowly moving that line back. But again, it's forced the shut [sic] of one of those three entry points. You can hear we're now sorta being surrounded by Trump supporters who are trying to get their message out on our air. But the situation here is now a tense one because you have these three different groups that have all converged on this one street, and we're now seeing the National Guard trying to move that crowd back and get these gates open again. The gates at the actual BOK Center are scheduled to open right now. I don't know if that will be delayed, because this entryway, as I said, is now completely shut....

MORE: At 3:42pm, News on 6's Reagan Ledbetter posted video of the 4th and Cheyenne gate being blocked by protesters, with TPD lined up on the other side of the intersection and instructing protesters to back away from the gate. A 3:57pm video shows Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers instructing the crowd that they had to back up past the alley (about 160 feet away) before the troopers would allow the gate to be reopened.

STILL MORE: Citizen-journalist Drew Hernandez has video of altercations in downtown Tulsa before and after the Trump rally.

EVEN MORE: David Van Risseghem of Sooner Politics has some thoughts on the real reasons attendance was so low and includes his experience (twice) of the checkpoint process. (I'm inclined to agree with his thoughts.) He also captured video of an attack on a Trump supporter waiting outside the BOK Center on Thursday.