Sometime around 3:30 PM, on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 20, the third day of the Republican National Convention, a loud bang ripped down Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

Police immediately swarmed out of Public Square and onto the streets, the press running close behind — days of stultifying boredom and the need for scoops sending people sprinting toward the first sign of mortal danger.

It was not the reckoning everyone expected would strike Cleveland, sowing chaos and race war at long last: A mustard-colored Kia Soul had blown its left front tire on the most policed street west of Pennsylvania Avenue.