Election 2020: Cities And Businesses Prepare For Post-Election Unrest, Violence

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Workers board up a building in downtown Washington, D.C., in preparation for possible protests.

Tyrone Turner/WAMU

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Nolan Rodman stands in front of the boarded up Rodman’s Food and Drug in Washington, D.C. From coast to coast, cities are preparing for possible protests, civil unrest and violence, regardless of the election’s outcome.

Marisa Peñaloza/NPR

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Marisa Peñaloza/NPR

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The city of Chicago has barricades ready to try to keep protesters away from Trump Tower, if necessary.

David Schaper/NPR

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David Schaper/NPR

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Workers board up a business in Beverly Hills, Calif., last weekend.

Liz Baker/NPR

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Liz Baker/NPR

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Trump supporters march in front a boarded up business in Beverly Hills.

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Liz Baker/NPR

Trump supporters march in front a boarded up business in Beverly Hills.

Liz Baker/NPR

Groups on both sides of the political spectrum are planning election night demonstrations and the very real possibility that the outcome could be unsettled for days or weeks after Election Day could escalate tensions.

Though Indiana University political science professor Ore Koren, who studies political unrest globally, says mass organized political violence is not a part of the American psyche.

«We just don’t do this in this country. We have lone wolves. We can have some of rioting, he says «but in terms of actual massive violence, this is not something we have done before.

That said, 2020 is already a year of political tension and unrest unlike anything seen in the country since the 1960s and the only certainty seems to be how difficult it is to predict what may happen next.