Thousands set to protest

In a repurposed dance studio in South Philadelphia a little more than a mile from the site of the Democratic National Convention, Cheri Honkala opened an enormous day planner stuffed with folders and fliers and festooned with Post-its.

For longtime activists like Honkala, it was crunch time. Two weeks to go before Democratic delegates descend on Philadelphia for a glittering week of parties and speeches and formal nominations. Two weeks before Honkala and tens of thousands of other protesters would take to the streets to protest the whole rigmarole.

"There is no larger stage," said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Pennsylvania chapter. "This is the time and the place to be seen."

The protests scheduled for convention week include a march for Honkala's Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign; several pro-Bernie Sanders rallies that, organizers told the city, expect to draw 30,000 people to Franklin D. Roosevelt Park; and a Black Resistance March against police brutality headed by one of the city's most outspoken activist groups.

A lone pro-Donald Trump group has requested a permit to gather at FDR Park near the convention site, which the city has set aside for protest rallies.

The Westboro Baptist Church, known for its homophobic sign-waving and willingness to protest just about anything, has promised to picket a transgender health clinic in Center City. That, in turn, spawned a counterprotest that thousands have pledged to attend. Said organizer Christopher Whibley: "With everything going on, the hate and fighting on the news, we need to bring the love."

Some of the demonstrations set to wind through Center City over convention week have been granted permits from the city. Some are still waiting, and organizers have vowed to march anyway.

The city Police Department is preparing for 30,000 to 50,000 protesters. In anticipation, the department sent a contingent of officers to Cleveland to see how their counterparts there dealt with demonstrators.

In 2000, during the Republican National Convention here, police arrested more than 400 protesters, some before the convention even started, and ultimately had to settle a slew of wrongful-arrest lawsuits.

In recent years, Philadelphia police have responded with relative calm in handling citywide protests. Police Commissioner Richard Ross has said that convention week would be no different and that the department was prepared for permitted and unplanned protests.

He suggested people marching without a permit would not be arrested solely for that reason. Officers will wear traditional uniforms, not riot gear.

Officials have not said whether protesters who remain in FDR Park after it closes each evening would be forcibly removed, though the city has said it would not allow overnight camping.

Honkala, who has led protests on behalf of the poor and homeless for decades, was the face of an ACLU lawsuit against the city this year when her group was denied a permit because protesters planned to march down Broad Street during rush hour. The city later gave in and granted the permit.

She and a team of teenage interns have been preparing for the march for months, sewing flags and stapling fliers to telephone poles.

They have also stockpiled cases of beans for a more irreverent endeavor: what Honkala calls the "fart-in," in which attendees will eat bowls of beans and let nature do the rest in protest of Hillary Clinton's speech on the final day of the convention.

"If you're going to deal with the media, you have to do outlandish stuff to get covered," Honkala said matter-of-factly.

She called the city's preparations for the convention "one big charade - an illusion of democracy." Her protest, like many scheduled this week, is characterized by a disdain for party politics in general. "They're both terrible," she said of Clinton and Trump.

Honkala, who says she has been arrested more than 200 times while demonstrating, is an old hand at protests. For other groups, the protests are the first large-scale demonstrations they have organized.

"This will be my first time participating in a full-scale effort as one of the lead organizers," said Erika Mines of the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice, which made its name at raucous anti-police-brutality protests around the city in the last several years.

Mines and others are leading the "Black DNC Resistance Against Police Terrorism and State Repression," a march set for Tuesday.

"I'm hoping to see a beautiful wave of black and brownness overflowing into a primarily white liberal space," Mines said. Marchers plan to walk from North Philadelphia and the convention site; Mines declined to comment on what the group's plans were once it arrived.

"We'll do what's necessary - but we're not going to be good little people," she said, laughing. Still, she said: "Arrests are not something we actually plan for."

The ACLU, which was an early critic of the city's permitting process, has been heartened by the city's approach in recent months, Roper said.

"We've been sort of consistently urging more opportunities for people to protest, and when it comes to permits, the city has really evolved," she said.

Still, the ACLU will be on hand and working with lawyers' organizations during the convention.

Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kenney, said the city was prepared to handle the protests - permitted and unpermitted - and had decriminalized a host of nuisance offenses that usually send protesters to jail.

"We don't want to arrest people - we don't see that as a de-escalating tactic," Hitt said. "[Mayor Kenney's] really set that tone that we expect demonstrations and expect people to express their First Amendment rights."

awhelan@philly.com

215-854-2961@aubreyjwhelan

Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article.