Riot Fears In U.S. If Obama Loses

Riot fears in US if Obama loses

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/wo...ama-loses.html

10/24/2008

Police in America fear riots could break out next month if the election win goes to John McCain and not Barack Obama.

While Obama's camp are already planning a £1.5 million election victory party, U.S police are preparing for the possibility of riots in the country, should Republican candidate John McCain be voted into the White House.

The Democratic nominee has stepped off the campaign trail temporarily to visit his grandmother in Hawaii, who is in bad health, but the two-day break has done nothing to slow Obama's success in the polls, which still predict he will make history on 4 November by becoming America's first black president.

However, police departments fear violent outbreaks across the country if the public are unhappy with the results or suspect voting irregularities, after this election campaign has created such passionate public interest.

Law enforcement officials are mobilising extra police forces and putting SWAT teams on standby.

Oakland police department spokesman Jeff Thomason said: 'We always try to prepare for the worst.'

'This election is going to mark in history a change in the presidency: you're going to have a woman in the presidency or an African American as president. I think everybody around here is voting for Obama, so if he gets in the White House everybody's going to be happy.'

Thomason said: 'But we'll have our SWAT teams on standby and traffic teams here, so if something goes off we'll organise and take care of the problem.'

Internet rumours of plans for protest have emerged, should Obama be beaten by his rival John McCain.

James Carville, strategist for former President Bill Clinton and advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, implied Democrat supporters could be furious if Obama lost, taking into account his lead in the polls.

'If Obama goes in and he has a consistent five-point lead and loses the election, it would be very, very, very dramatic out there,' he told CNN.