Security preparations for the Democratic National Convention have been underway for months but there's a new level of concern in light of violence that broke out at last Saturday’s state convention in Nevada.
Sen. Diane Feinstein said today that the uptick in violence "worries me a great deal," and specifically referenced the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Riots broke out during that convention and police confrontations with protesters were widely reported.
"I don't want to go back to the '68 convention because I worry about what it does to the electorate as a whole and he should too," Feinstein said of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a statement Tuesday saying they are "deeply concerned" about what happened at the Nevada Democratic State Convention and they called on both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns to "ask them to stand with the Democratic Party in denouncing and taking steps to prevent the type of behavior on display over the weekend in Las Vegas."
Sanders said Tuesday that party leaders in Nevada had been saying that his campaign, "has a 'penchant for violence.' That is nonsense."
"Our campaign has held giant rallies all across this country, including in high-crime areas, and there have been zero reports of violence. Our campaign of course believes in non-violent change and it goes without saying that I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals," Sanders said.
One individual who was harassed was Roberta Lange, the Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman, who received threatening voicemails and text messages from Sanders supporters.
"I hope you are taken out on a stretcher when Philly riots," said one such text message, obtained by ABC News.
Earlier in the presidential campaign, there was concern that violence would break out at the Republican National Convention, which will be held in Cleveland a week before the Democrats' event in Philadelphia.
In March, Donald Trump warned that there may be riots in Cleveland if the Republican party tried to stop him from becoming the nominee by using a technical loophole. Now it's Sanders' supporters threatening violence, with chairs being thrown and threats being issued.
Steve Gomez, a former special agent in charge of counterterrorism for the FBI in Los Angeles, who now works as a consultant for ABC News, said that it would be fair to expect more than 1,000 different law enforcement officers and agents to be involved during the convention in Philadelphia, which takes place from July 25 to 28.
"It's really important that they [law enforcement] start to evaluate the past instances where there's been protests, riots and violence because they need to see who were the people who were involved in that? Were they a certain segment of Sanders supporters or Clinton supporters?" Gomez told ABC News.
The Philadelphia Police Department has not released any information about its security plans and did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
Five groups supporting Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign have recently filed permit applications with the city of Philadelphia to protest near the site of this summers Democratic Convention.
According to the Philadelphia Office of the Mayor, the protests will take place near the Wells Fargo arena in the allotted protest zone.
Only nine applications have been filed overall with the city.
Gomez said security preparations for the convention were likely underway ever since The Wells Fargo Center, home to the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team and the 76ers basketball team, was announced as the site in February 2015.
"Once the campaign started to kick off, there were probably multi-agency working groups including law enforcement, the fire department, emergency management and probably some state agencies," Gomez said.
ABC News' Seniboye Tienabeso contributed to this report.
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