<p class="MsoNormal">The New Black Panther party has confirmed that it will be staging an armed protest in Cleveland Ohio prior to the 4-day Republican National Convention that starts next Monday. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our Second Amendment rights because there are other groups threatening to be there that are threatening to do harm to us,&rdquo; said party chairman Hashim Nzinga. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many Trump supporters are also planning to come armed to the event. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Panthers have been spotted carrying weapons at recent protests centered on the police shooting of Alton Sterling in Louisiana. ;Nzinga confirmed that his group played no role in what he calls the Dallas &ldquo;massacre&rdquo; and reiterated that the Panthers will only be armed if Ohio laws allow. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ohio&rsquo;s open carry laws allow citizens to carry guns without a license, but officials are nervous about the potential violence that could break out between armed, politically opposed groups. ;Nzinga expects &ldquo;a couple hundred&rdquo; Panthers to attend a black unity protest in Cleveland this Thursday. He stated that his group plans to leave Cleveland the day before the convention begins. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;We are there to protect (the black unity) event. We are not trying to do anything else,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We are going to carry out some of these great legal rights we have &ndash; to assemble, to protest, and to exercise freedom of speech.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Panthers and other black power groups argue for defense against racial oppression, with some groups seeking the formation of all-black social institutions. ;The New Black Panther Party was founded in 1990 and has long promoted black separatist ideology. They have been slammed by the ;Southern Poverty Law Center as &ldquo;a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against white, Jews, and law enforcement officers.&rdquo;</p>
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