Highlights
For five days in August, the nation's Democrats assembled in Chicago to nominate a presidential candidate at a convention that would quickly spiral out of control and reflect the domestic chaos of the Vietnam era. Between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators were arrayed against 12,000 police and 6,000 National Guard troops, with an international press contingent of more than 1,000 on hand to record events inside the International Amphitheatre and outside at locations from Lincoln Park to Grant Park. Chants of "the whole world is watching" were broadcast as hippies, Yippies and the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (Mobe) clashed with police at dozens of locations. The climax came W...
For five days in August, the nation's Democrats assembled in Chicago to nominate a presidential candidate at a convention that would quickly spiral out of control and reflect the domestic chaos of the Vietnam era. Between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators were arrayed against 12,000 police and 6,000 National Guard troops, with an international press contingent of more than 1,000 on hand to record events inside the International Amphitheatre and outside at locations from Lincoln Park to Grant Park. Chants of "the whole world is watching" were broadcast as hippies, Yippies and the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (Mobe) clashed with police at dozens of locations. The climax came Wednesday night, as a melee broke out near the Conrad Hilton Hotel across from Grant Park, and police began beating bystanders as well as protesters, using clubs, fists, knees and Mace. Some militants fought back with their own caustic sprays, bottles and concrete chunks, enraging police all the more. Officers pushed people through a plate-glass window and then, according to witnesses, attacked the dazed victims as they lay amid broken glass. A group of police cheered a soldier as he bashed a demonstrator and attacked a photographer who filmed the scene. About an hour later, film of the violence was shown at the Amphitheatre, with the effect of a thunderbolt. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, at the podium to place Sen. George McGovern's name in nomination, decried the use of "Gestapo tactics." A livid Mayor Daley stood up as TV cameras zoomed in but what he shouted has never been precisely determined. Later that night, as the riots continued, Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota easily won the nomination. There were hundreds of injuries, but no deaths. A national inquiry chaired by Chicago Crime Commission director Daniel Walker, later elected governor of Illinois, called the confrontations a "police riot." The city's version, called "What Trees Do They Plant?" blamed the disturbances on extremists and provocateurs. The tumult led to the infamous Chicago 8 trial, later the Chicago 7 trial, in which organizers were charged in federal indictments with rioting and conspiring to riot. They were: Bobby Seale, head of the Black Panthers; Tom Hayden, co-founder of SDS; Dennis Roberts, an Oakland-based civil rights lawyer; Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, founders of the Youth International Party, or Yippies; veteran pacifist and Mobe leader David Dellinger; and academics Lee Weiner and John Froines.
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Reunion Planned For 1968 DNC Riot Police
(WGN-AM)- The violent clashes between police and protesters during the 1968 Democratic National Convention aren't typically considered proud moments in Chicago history. But some members of the Fraternal Order of Police want to change that. On June 26,...Tags: Chicago Tribune, Riots, Unrest, Conflicts and War, Democratic National Conventions, Union Park
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1968 DNC Protestors Speak Out Against Police Reunion
(WGN-AM)- A protester who helped organize the anti-war demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention spoke out Tuesday morning against the planned reunion Friday for the Chicago police officers who were at the riots.
Don Rose, a former...Tags: Chicago Tribune, Public Relations, Democratic National Conventions, Union Park
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Let's go to the video -- Cameras everywhere subject police, protesters to further review
Change of SubjectThere will be no pictures of you and Willie May Pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run, Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance … There will be no pictures of pigs...... -
Let's go to the video
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May Pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run, Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance … There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down Brothers on the...
Tags: Eric Zorn, Services and Shopping, Chicago Loop, Photography Supplies and Services, Chicago Tribune Columnists
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McCarthy gets high marks for handling of NATO security
WGN NewsChicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy was on the front lines at several NATO protests this weekend. He was seen giving orders, directing traffic and he even assisted in an arrest. "We will facilitate your right to free speech but we`re not going to be...Tags: Garry McCarthy, International Organizations, Demonstration, Jesse Jackson, NATO
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The morning after
From a doughnut dangled at the end of a fishing pole to a middle finger in the face, Chicago's cops took a lot of grief as they went about the business of keeping the city safe during the NATO summit. The summit's international spotlight drew thousands...
Tags: Protest, Politics, Garry McCarthy, Demonstration, Michigan Avenue
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At NATO summit, warm welcome for most leaders, but not Pakistan's
CHICAGO — As thousands of protesters marched in the streets, President Obama welcomed more than 60 world leaders to his heavily guarded hometown for a NATO summit that will start the clock for America and its allies to begin pulling combat troops...Tags: Hamid Karzai, International Organizations, Armed Forces, Politics, International Military Interventions
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Chicago's finest
Just for a moment, put yourself in their shoes. You are fully outfitted in riot gear, full battle regalia (bulky body armor, clunky steel-plated boots, helmets with full face shields). It is an oppressively hot and humid weekend day in May. The mercury is...Tags: Garry McCarthy, Chicago, NATO, Chicago Police Department
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The loneliest Chicagoan
Forty-four years ago, as the battles of the 1968 Democratic National Convention swirled around him, no combatant saw more action than Gen. John Alexander Logan. From atop the man-made hill built for his statue just east of Michigan Avenue in Grant Park,...
Tags: Sociology, Culture, Human Interest, Arts, Memorial Day
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Prosecutors: Undercover work showed 3 men planned to hit police, mayor's house, Obama HQ
Police surrounded the three men — now known as the NATO 3 — outside a Bridgeport drugstore last week and peppered them with questions as officers searched their car.
The two sides traded barbs about the Occupy movement and the 1968 Democratic...Tags: Media Industry, Rahm Emanuel, International Organizations, Prosecution, Fort Lauderdale
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The stage is set for summit, protests
After all the planning, platitudes and protest, the NATO summit officially gets under way Sunday at McCormick Place, with President Barack Obama and fellow Western military alliance leaders charting the wind-down of involvement in Afghanistan and...Tags: Chicago Loop, Rahm Emanuel, International Organizations, Chicago Mayor, Chicago White Sox
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Won't you please come to Chicago
They've come to protest war, or to protest the money spent on war, or to protest the cuts in social programs that they blame on the money spent on war. They want a tax on Wall Street, a moratorium on home foreclosures, an end to deportation of...Tags: Medical Specialization, Rahm Emanuel, International Organizations, Muammar Gaddafi, Robin Hood
Jun 17, 2009
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Jun 23, 2009
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May 23, 2012
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May 23, 2012
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May 21, 2012
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May 22, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
May 20, 2012
|Story| Los Angeles Times
May 21, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
May 21, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
May 20, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
May 20, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
May 20, 2012
|Story| Chicago Tribune
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