For this year’s Republcian National Convention, tens of thousands of conventioneers and attendant media will converge with political protesters spanning the spectrum from tea partiers to occupiers into a relatively small area where not only are guns permitted, but it seems to be ok to shoot someone dead for engendering a threatened feeling. As Rachel pointed out Wednesday night, the proposed rules to keep all of these people safe seem a little inconsistent. But after watching Wednesday night’s segment, I was less fixated on the hand guns than I was on the string. Why ban twine? Why six inches?
Blame my northern bias, but my first guess was that it’s a hold over from anti-lynching laws. As harmless as a six-inch piece of string might seem, in another light, a group of impassioned people bearing a length of rope in Florida might seem a bit more ominous. After a few hours of horrified googling I’ve learned that my bias is not entirely without basis, but also that anti-lynching laws, to the extent that any exist beyond failed bills, focus more on the idea of extra-judicial mobs than on actual rope (which makes sense, and now I feel silly for thinking otherwise).So wait, before we go any further let’s take a look at the proposed ordinance (pdf):
(1) Rope, chain, cable, strapping, wire, string, line, tape or any material of a similar nature, having tensile strength greater than thirty (30) pounds and a length greater than six (6) inches;
The language of the bill sounds somewhat boilerplate, making me think this isn’t specific to political convention protests. Sure enough, I found a FAQ sheet for a parade in Tampa called the Seminole Hard Rock Gasparilla Pirate Fest from this past January that has a similar banned item list and a bit more explanation of the rope ban under the “prohibited items” heading:









