The City of Dallas canceled the special event permit for the only organized protest against the Republican convention, days before Donald Trump and JD Vance open the two-night event at the American Airlines Center on Wednesday. Organizers from Dallas Against the Trump Agenda, with Indivisible Dallas, applied in early August for a march from Pike Park and a rally on Thursday afternoon.
Dallas Police Assistant Director Allison Hudson described the cancellation as a favor. "We felt this would be a better option to bypass the permit process and help the organizers directly," she said. Without a permit, organizers pay nothing for off-duty officers. Without a permit, they also have no permit. Organizers say police kept setting meetings and then canceling them — their account, not the city's. They say they will march anyway.
Anyone walking or driving into the security zone around the arena was told to bring paperwork. The Secret Service asked that "residents, employees, and others with a legitimate need to access locations within the security perimeter" carry "identification and any documentation that may help verify their need to enter, such as proof of residency, employment, parking access, or other relevant credentials." The perimeter covers Victory Park. Checkpoints sit on Payne Street and twice on Victory Place. Streets close from Monday to midnight Friday, DART shut its Victory Station, and snipers take the roofs.
Christina Foley, the Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service's Dallas field office, put her name to that guidance. She also confirmed what the convention is not. It "has not been designated by the Department of Homeland Security as a National Security Special Event, as the World Cup was."
