Remember Chicago 1968. Police Riots. Who was there? What's your story?

[skip fox]

A thread to collect stories from the Democratic Convention 1968, inside and outside the hall, in the parks and on the streets, from citizens of the city and The Yippies, from Mobilization to whoever.

Who was there?

What was it like?

I'm sure there are print histories from the ground up, but what about older DUers, like me? What was your story?

(I was 21 that fall and hiked in from Bowling Green, Ohio. Went first, as someone must have directed, to Mobilization Housing in order to find a place to stay. While there, I started helping out and became a regular worker for several of the first few days, going up to Lincoln Park in the afternoons or evenings, being pushed down side streets by cops in riot gear--30+ at a time pushed by 3-5 cops, so it was easy to slip to the side and return. Mobilization Housing had its storefront window shot out each night, we thought by off-duty cops with a shotgun, so I volunteered to stay overnight maybe my 3rd or 4th day there. I got in a little early and was approached by a presumptive fellow demonstrator--I now realize was a cop--who asked me if I wanted to get a cup of coffee down the street. I went with him and as we walked he handed me a joint. We passed it back and forth walking until it was a roach and all of a sudden cops were all over us. I remember several cars and amybe two on foot. They didn't find anything on me and they couldn't find the roach I'd tossed, but the other guy (the cop) had a grocery bag, paper of course back then, folded over once and stuffed with grass, as unlikely a way of carrying pot then as today. Interestingly, they frisked us both and didn't find it on him the first time. After finding nothing on me, he must had nodded or something. They found it the second time. In Illinois back then, there was a communitive possession law that stated if you were with someone who had pot, they could arrest you for possession as well. So I spent a night in the precinct cling, then was transfered to Cook County Jail where my father bailed me out. Once I was in a room filled with tired cops arguing politics. I was at the head of a small classroom, maybe a briefing room. It was a civil although animated exchange. I could't remember if Mobilization Housing found a replacement that night. I returned to Bowling Green where I watched the riots really heat up--much more than the first few days and night--on t.v. I spent the next 8 months or so paying off a $2,000 bribe by working the afternoon shift at a factory north of Bowling Green. Such is my story. Minus a beautiful older lady--30?-Some things I keep close.)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I was only 11, the marches were 6 miles away.

but even then I was riveted to radio/ TV about the story.

There were competing voices as to what really happened at any particular time. Some reporters reported what they saw with their own eyes, while the CPD and the mayor's office denied that it happened like that.
Daley (senior) was in fine form, mangling the american language like only he could. The rest of the city was extremely quiet and watched the spectacle in a sort awed, numb state.

[bluestateguy]

2. I was not born until the 70's.

I once made a joke about it to my father (he was 19 at the time). He did not find it funny, and I changed the subject.

[skip fox]

3. Was he there? Did he sympathize with demonstrators or hate them?

The climate was even more polarized back than than now. Believe it or not.

[global1]

4. I Was 20y/o And Went Down For The Day Just Because I Was Curious....

I wasn't protesting anything. I was dressed very conservatively in comparison to the protesters. I was simply an observer. I remember being next to Dick Gregory on Balboa Drive. He was a civil rights activist at the time and I believe that he also ran for president in 1968. I watched for awhile as Gregory and a large group of protesters - chanted against the war - then I moved on through other areas of Grant Park.

I walked all through Grant Park to see what was going on. For the most part - when I was there - things were proceeding peaceably. A lot of long hair and tiedyes. All kinds of protest signs. Groups sitting in a circle playing guitar and singing. The smell of pot wafting in the air.

What I saw that really disturbed me however - was a Chicago CTA bus filled with Chicago Police. There were a few of these buses around the area. They were wearing blue riot helmets. They had their hands stuck out the windows of the bus and were pounding their billy clubs against the side of the bus and making catcalls to the protesters. In my mind they were inciting the riot that ultimately ensued. It looked to me that they wanted something to happen and were there to make something happen.

After seeing this I thought that things might get dicey so I left for home.

Back home my mother - a widow - heard on the news that riots that were going on down at Grant Park. (these started after I left Grant Park and headed home) My mother called my uncle up because she knew I was downtown and she was worried about me. (I was her only child and till today she continues to worry about me.) This was well before cell phones - so we weren't in contact at all. She didn't know if I was being beaten, in jail or worse.

I remember arriving back home. My mother was crying and hugged me as I walked in. She was happy to see me - then she let me have it. Boy - did she yell at me and I got a piece of my uncle's mind as well. They were happy I wasn't harmed - but they didn't think I should have been down there and I was stupid for going there.

This turned out to be the worst day of rioting. This was before 24/7 news shows. We listened to the radio and caught some TV accounts of the action on black & white TV.

Needless to say it was a bad time in U.S. and Chicago history.

I think that actually being down at Grant Park that day and seeing what I saw (the police inciting the riot) I think that this left an indelible mark on me. I learned that day not to trust the establishment. Yes - the media of that day blamed the protesters. I don't recall(my Gonzo moment)any news accounts of the police inciting the riot.

Looking back on this day in my life probably shaped my thoughts today against this so-called war and my political affiliation. Times have sure changed. Those people that protested in Chicago that day are now the baby boomers that are or have supported this Iraqi quagmire. I sit back and wonder where their ideals went? What changed them? Why don't we see the same kind of passion from them against this war and *Co as we seen back then? I can't answer these questions.

This is my little bit of 1968 history. Hope this helps.

[skip fox]

6. Some of us have stayed as political as we were then, maybe in less

obvious ways.

That is, we haven't given up. I'm a professor and am always discussing politics or porgressive ways of thought. I've not been to another demonstration, but had only been to one before, In 1969 I went to live in the woods of Washington with the FBI on my tail for draft evasion. I'm primarily a writer-teacher, but made national news with the graduate student (then) Jack Gillis during the Clinton impeachment days by investigating the "Talking Points Memo" (which Clinton presumptively gave to Monica to suborn the perjury of Linda Tripp), showing that there were three different texts all said to be the actual, original text (NYT & WP and one other had one version whereas ABC and another outlet had a second . . . all with the same 7 variants), and SHOWING that neither Clinton nor any of his men created the document, though it was that document that Starrr took to DoJ to extend his authority into "The Lewinsky Affair." Eight months. But we were on Burden of Proof on CNN and had great articles on our work by Gene Lyons, Joel Conason and Tom Oliphant, besides appearing on dozens of talk shows like on Pacifica.

Have also maintained long bibliographical posts on DU on Harkengate, Halliburton, etc. with hotlinks. (A political research tool for liberals).

That is, I was never that political, more of a poet hippy that a political hippie, but I've always been willing to lay it on the line, so to speak.

Don't write us off. Just as there are tens of thousands of vibrant young progressives and liberals just as there are many of us in our 50s and 60s (I'm 60) who are still very active. (My writing is even very political in an essential way–trying to show the incredibly rich multi-valence of existence and always arguing against those who would make life meagre, which I associate with a miserly and hierarchal Republican (often racist) mentality. But even the idea of a dialectic (as the chief means of thought) is terribly narrow. These generations that we are discussing are incredibly various and complex, and goodness often abounds, despite the apparent evidence (which is terribly filtered by the media).

[Mz Pip]

5. I still have my YIPPEE! button

which I wear every presidential election. I lost my "Plague on Both Your Houses" button that was from the Second City show that was running to coincide with the convention. I was a sophomore at the U of I at Chicago Circle.

The YIPPEE Festival was billed as a music festival with a big anti-war element to it. All of the major anti-war people were there. It was peaceful during the day, lots of music, picnics, poetry. I remember sitting in a circle with Allan Ginsburg chanting Ohm. But the city denied the permit to allow people to stay in the park past 10pm, so when 10pm rolled around the police came in and did a big sweep. Grant Park is a pretty big park and can accommodate a lot of people so there really wasn't anyplace else for people to go but into the street. That's when things got dicey.

Thousands of people swarmed from the park into the streets. It felt like everyone - police, people and National Guard converged on this one intersection on Michigan Ave. The crowd started chanting "The whole world is watching!" That got on television, I remember. The National Guard was in the middle of the intersection with their uniforms and guns. The police were on motorcycles herding people around. From that place it felt very chaotic. There was violence, but it was not all police related. There were plenty of people in the crowd agitating. As things got worse, I decided to get the hell out of there and got onto a side street and finally out of the area. In retrospect it's amazing to me that no one was killed.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[mmonk]

7. I remember it but I was 12.