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US Vice-President Mike Pence has warned that violence will spread in American cities if Joe Biden wins the White House in November.
“The hard truth is you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” said President Donald Trump’s deputy in a keynote speech to the Republican convention.
Mr Pence depicted the vote as a choice between law-and-order and lawlessness.
He spoke amid nightly protests over the police shooting of a black man in Wisconsin on Sunday.
“The American people know we don’t have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with African-American neighbours to improve the quality of life in our cities and towns,” said Mr Pence.
He blasted Mr Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, for saying there is an “implicit bias” against minorities and “systemic racism” in the US.
Mr Pence said: “Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to unsafe streets and violence in America’s cities.”
The third night of the Republican convention adopted a theme of “Land of Heroes”, and the vice-president spoke from Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, where the city was defended against the British in the War of 1812, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
Mr Pence’s remarks came after three people were shot, two fatally, during a third night of unrest on Tuesday over the police shooting three days earlier in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of Jacob Blake, 29.
The vice-president did not refer to the incident, which has inflamed protests against police brutality that have erupted across the nation over the past three months.