Dan Rather Incident[edit]
While trying to interview a Georgia delegate being escorted out of the building, CBS News correspondent Dan Rather was grabbed by security guards and was roughed up.[17] While Rather was reporting from the convention floor,[17] CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite turned his attention towards the area where Rather was reporting from. Rather was grabbed by security guards after he walked towards a delegate who was being hauled out, and asked him, "What is your name, sir?" Rather, who was wearing a microphone headset, was then heard on national television repeatedly saying to the guards, "Don't push me" and "Take your hands off me unless you plan to arrest me" to the guards.[17]
After the guards let go of Rather, he then told Cronkite, "Walter... we tried to talk to the man and we got violently pushed out of the way. This is the kind of thing that has been going on outside the hall, this is the first time we've had it happen inside the hall. We... I'm sorry to be out of breath, but somebody belted me in the stomach during that. What happened is a Georgia delegate, at least he had a Georgia delegate sign on, was being hauled out of the hall. We tried to talk to him to see why, who he was, what the situation was, and at that instant the security people, well as you can see, put me on the deck. I didn't do very well."[17]
Cronkite then replied by saying, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."
Protests and police response[edit]
In 1968, the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Youth International Party (Yippies) had already begun planning a youth festival in Chicago to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. They were not alone as other groups, such as Students For a Democratic Society also would make their presence known.[18] When asked about anti-war demonstrators, Daley kept repeating to reporters that "No thousands will come to our city and take over our streets, our city, our convention."[19] In the end, 10,000 demonstrators gathered in Chicago for the convention where they were met by 23,000 police and National Guardsmen.[11] Daley also thought that one way to prevent demonstrators from coming to Chicago was to refuse to grant permits which would allow for people to protest legally.[20]
After the violence which took place at the Chicago convention, Daley said his primary reason for calling in so many Guardsmen and police was reports he received indicating the existence of plots to assassinate many of the leaders, including himself.[21]
While several protests had taken place before serious violence occurred, the events headed by the Yippies were not without satire. Surrounded by reporters on August 23, 1968, Jerry Rubin, a Yippie leader, folk singer Phil Ochs, and other activists held their own presidential nominating convention with their candidate Pigasus, an actual pig. When the Yippies paraded Pigasus at the Civic Center, ten policemen arrested Ochs, Rubin, Pigasus, and six others. This resulted in Pigasus becoming a media hit.[22]
The Chicago police riot[edit]
August 28, 1968 came to be known as the day a "police riot" took place. The title of "police riot" came out of the Walker Report, which amassed a great deal of information and eyewitness accounts to determine what happened in Chicago.[20] At approximately 3:30 pm, a young boy lowered the American flag at a legal rally taking place at Grant Park. The demonstration was made up of 10,000 protesters.[10] The police broke through the crowd and began beating the boy, while the crowd pelted the police with food, rocks, and chunks of concrete.[23] Police fought with the protesters and vice versa. The chants of the protesters shifted from "Hell no, we won't go" to "Pigs are whores."[24] Tom Hayden, one of the leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, encouraged protesters to move out of the park to ensure that if they were to be tear gassed, the whole city would be tear gassed, and made sure that if blood were spilled in Chicago it would happen throughout the city.[25] The amount of tear gas used to suppress the protesters was so great that it eventually made its way to the Hilton Hotel, where it disturbed Hubert Humphrey while in his shower.[24] The police were taunted by the protesters with chants of "Kill, kill, kill." They sprayed demonstrators and bystanders indiscriminately with Mace.[26] The police assault in front of the Hilton Hotel the evening of August 28 became the most famous image of the Chicago demonstrations of 1968. The entire event took place live under the T.V. lights for seventeen minutes with the crowd shouting, "The whole world is watching."[24]
Meanwhile, in the convention hall, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff used his nominating speech for George McGovern to tell of the violence going on outside the convention hall, saying that "with George McGovern we wouldn't have Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago."[27] Mayor Daley responded to his remark with something that the T.V. sound was not able to pick up. That night, NBC News had been switching back and forth between the demonstrators being beaten by the police to the festivities over Humphrey's victory in the convention hall.[28] It was under the cameras of the convention center, for all of America to see. It was clear that the Democratic party was sorely divided.
After the Chicago protests, the demonstrators were confident that the majority of Americans would side with them over what had happened in Chicago, especially because of police behavior. They were shocked to learn that controversy over the war in Vietnam overshadowed their cause.[13] Daley shared he had received 135,000 letters supporting his actions and only 5000 condemning them. Public opinion polls demonstrated that the majority of Americans supported the Mayor's tactics. It was often commented through the popular media that on that evening, America voted for Richard Nixon.[29]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention#Dan_Rather_Incident
I was a thousand miles away weeping while watching this live at the violence which seemed to go on forever. The police beat the protestors with batons. Many were down and couldn't get up to go into the paddy wagons but the police kept beating them as they dragged them by the hair to the paddy wagons like cattle shoved into a slaughterhouse. I'm not saying all the protestors were peaceful, but these ones appeared to be.
But none of that is anything as bad as what blacks have endured as the protestors could have left. They got their first taste of the same treatment, just not as bad.
A black person can't leave being black at any time.
Not dissing your thread, but Daley will always be a reminder of a very bad era in America to me. It's just a matter of my age so my feelings are skewed. It's still a good idea.
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