WASHINGTON, Nov 02 (Xinhua): With Election Day one day away, enhanced security measures can be seen across the United States, a country that is bracing for possible violence related to the high-stakes presidential election.
In Washington, D.C., shopfronts are boarding up their windows with plywood or putting up other makeshift barriers, some of them stretching nearly entire blocks.
"We do not have any intelligence on planned activity to suggest the need to board up; however, we remain vigilant," John Falcicchio, deputy mayor of Washington, D.C. for planning and economic development, said in a statement.
"We understand the difficult position building owners and operating businesses are in, and we call upon all who participate in First Amendment activities to denounce violence and report it immediately should it occur," he said.
Fences have been erected around the White House, where demonstrators gathered Saturday night to protest against President Donald Trump. Cardboards on which anti-Trump slogans were written were attached on the fences.
Similar scenes of businesses protecting their properties also appeared on the streets in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked residents to express their political opinions in a safe way. "What I'm encouraging people to do is to express themselves... but do it in a way that honors our traditions," she said during a news conference Friday. "We don't have the right to take out our frustration, our anger, on someone else."
Chicago "is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to planning for" Election Day security arrangement, Rich Guidice, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said in a press conference this month.
US beefs up security steps for Election Day
FE Team | Published: November 03, 2020 00:03:53
US beefs up security steps for Election Day
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