Rights in Conflict: The Violent Confrontation of Demonstrators and Police in the Parks and Streets of Chicago During the Week of the Democratic National Convention of 1968A report submitted by Daniel Walker, direcotr of the Chicago Study Team, to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. |
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Abbie Hoffman Amphitheatre arrested Assistant U.S. August August 28 Balbo bandshell barricade baton beat began bottles cameras Chicago Police Department Chicago's American Clark Street clubbed Committee Conrad Hilton convention week crowd delegates Democratic National demon demonstrators deputy chief disrupt east Festival fire front Fuck going Grant Park Guardsmen head helmet Hilton Hotel hippie incident injuries intersection Jerry Rubin Lincoln Park Loop mace marchers marshals Mayor Daley McCarthy meeting Michigan Avenue motorcycle moved National Guard National Mobilization newsmen night nightsticks organizations Park District peace permit persons photographer pigs plans police car police line police officers policemen protest rally Rennie Davis reporter riots rocks says Secret Service shouted side of Michigan sidewalk Soldier Field squad car stopped strators struck Task Force tear gas tion U.S. Attorney violence walked witness yelled Yippie young youth
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Page 240 - A well-dressed woman saw this incident and spoke angrily to a nearby police captain. As she spoke, another policeman came up from behind her and sprayed something in her face with an aerosol can. He then clubbed her to the ground. He and two other policemen then dragged her along the ground to the same paddy wagon and threw her in.
Page xxi - New Left," entirely anarchist, or entirely youthful political dissenters is both wrong and dangerous. The stereotyping that did occur helps to explain the emotional reaction of both police and public during and after the violence that occurred. Despite the presence of some revolutionaries, the vast majority of the demonstrators were intent on expressing by peaceful means their dissent either from society generally or from the administration's policies in Vietnam. Most of those intending to join the...
Page xxvi - Out of 300 newsmen assigned to cover the parks and streets of Chicago during convention week, more than 60 (about 20% ) were involved in incidents resulting in injury to themselves, damage to their equipment, or their arrest.
Page xxvii - A priest who was in the crowd says he saw a "boy, about fourteen or fifteen, white, standing on top of an automobile yelling something which was unidentifiable. Suddenly a policeman pulled him down from the car and beat him to the ground by striking him three or four times with a nightstick. Other police joined in ... and they eventually shoved him to a police van.
Page xix - During the week of the Democratic National Convention, the Chicago police were the targets of mounting provocation by both word and act. It took the form of obscene epithets, and of rocks, sticks, bathroom tiles and even human feces hurled at police by demonstrators.
Page xxvii - Suddenly a policeman pulled him down from the car and beat him to the ground by striking him three or four times with a nightstick. Other police joined in ... and they eventually shoved him to a police van. "A well-dressed woman saw this incident and spoke angrily to a nearby police captain. As she spoke, another policeman came up from behind her and sprayed something in her face with an aerosol can.
Page vi - Most of those intending to join the major protest demonstrations scheduled during convention week did not plan to enter the Amphitheatre and disrupt the proceedings of the Democratic Convention, did not plan aggressive acts of physical provocation against the authorities, and did not plan to use rallies of demonstrators to stage an assault against any person, institution, or place of business. But while it is clear that most of the protesters in Chicago had no intention of initiating violence, this...
Page xxvi - 10-1' call on either my radio or one of the other hand sets being carried by other men with me," the US Attorney states, "and then heard, 'Car 100-sweep!' [Car 100 was assigned to the police commander.] With a roar of motors, squads, vans and three-wheelers came from east, west and north into the block north of Jackson.
Page xxi - do their thing," youngsters working for a political candidate, professional people with dissenting political views, anarchists and determined revolutionaries, motorcycle gangs, black activists, young thugs, police and secret service undercover agents. There were demonstrators waving the Viet Cong flag and the red flag of revolution and there were the simply curious who came to watch and, in many cases, became willing or unwilling participants. To characterize the crowd, then, as entirely hippy-Yippie,...
Page xix - Some of these acts had been planned; others were spontaneous or were themselves provoked by police action. Furthermore, the police had been put on edge by widely published threats of attempts to disrupt both the city and the Convention. That was the nature of the provocation. The nature of the response was unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence on many occasions, particularly at night. That violence was made all the more shocking by the fact that it was often inflicted upon persons who had...