Can Cleveland keep the peace during Republican convention?

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland managed to avoid the kind of violent confrontations between police and protesters seen in Missouri and Baltimore after police killed black residents, but will it be able to keep the peace when officers and activists flood downtown for the Republican National Convention?

City officials have been coy about their plans for handling convention protests, saying only they are prepared for "challenges" and are working to free up jail cells, while activists have warily eyed the city's acquisition of riot gear.

Larry Bresler, who hopes to help stage an economic-inequality protest on the first day of the July convention, is among those who believe activists this summer can't expect the same accommodations they got in protests after the police killing of black 12-year-old Tamir Rice and the acquittal of an officer for his role in the deaths of two unarmed black people in a 137-shot barrage.

[...] the convention will prove an additional test for the Cleveland Police Department, which last year began operating under a reform-minded agreement called a consent decree after a U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded officers had shown a pattern of using excessive force and violating people's civil rights.

A police union official has said around 600 Cleveland police officers are expected to join several thousand officers hired from other law enforcement agencies to provide security downtown during the convention week.