Who caused the chicago riots

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Impact

Ina Jaffe’s article, “1968 Chicago Riot Left Mark On Political Protests”, exams the effects of the happenings in 1968 Chicago and compares the atmosphere of that Democratic National Convention to the (at the time of the article, upcoming) 2008 DNC. She notes similarities that range from tense politics, the unpopularity of the wars going on at the different conventions, and public protest of such issues. The article goes on to discuss in detail the events of 1968 Chicago. Accounts are given by witnesses and the familiar story of street violence is told. Not surprisingly, the impact of what happened on those August days and nights is lasting. Activist groups with names like “Recreate ‘68” are reminiscent of the enthusiasm seen at the Chicago protests and are trying to, hence the name, recreate the energy and sincerity of those protests of not only 1968, but the 1960s in general. According to those involved in those Chicago protests and planning to join the picketers for 2008, they remember their Chicago experience positively despite the fact that many interviewed got beat about he head or otherwise roughed up.

            I thought that parts of this article were pretty similar to others that I’ve read about this topic. The article’s not bad, it just discusses many of them same things that others did. What I did find different about this article was its examination of the current feelings of those who were involved in the protest movement in Chicago. Another interesting nugget of information that I gained from the article was how the city of Chicago denied the protestors permits that had been requested months and months in advance. What this shows, in my opinion, is a desire by the organizers to do things legally and correctly by city standards and a stubborn move by the city government to ignore and deny the many formal requests for an opportunity express organized protest. As Tom Hayden, one of the organizers, explains, “We were used to the idea that authorities would stall on permits, but I think some of us thought that the permits would come through at the end, so we went forward”(Jaffe). Overall, I found the article to supplement everything I’ve already read, but also to add to them with a few extra facts or reports.

Jaffe, Ina. "1968 Chicago Riot Left Mark On Political Protests." National Public        Radio (2008): n. pag. Web. 18 Apr 2010.   .

Yippie Tactics

I watched a video, “Abbie Hoffman on Yippie Tactics – 1968”, that was an interview with famous Yippie leader, Abbie Hoffman. In this video he discussed what his plans for the Yippie involvement at the Democratic Convention were. He explained that they were going to use tactics of Guerilla Theater, where the protesters would act outrageously and theatrically to garner attention. “We’re gonna throw around a bunch of banana peels around Chicago,” He told his interviewer, “until the machine stumbles”. The machine in which he was referring to was the Chicago police department as well as any violent opposition to the peace seekers’ goals. He continues in the interview to express that he’s not worried about what seems to be inevitable violence that could, and did, occur in Chicago that August. He foresaw the chance for conflict and claimed it was to his cause’s advantage. People, he argued, would be drawn to the protester versus police clash as they would a football game. As he put it, “People will say- We don’t wanna watch that speech stuff, we wanna watch the Rose Bowl out there”. Goofy faced and foul mouthed the entire interview, Hoffman seemed to show that he was definitely looking forward to what he deemed a “groovy time” in Chicago.

            I really enjoyed this video. I was lucky to find it for one thing; most of the videos on this topic were photo montages set to some ‘60s folk singer song. This video, however, was very insightful. It allowed me hear to Abbie Hoffman’s ideas in a casual setting with no background shouting, chanting, or static as was common in most other footage of him speaking. The video also gave me a better idea of what kind of person Hoffman was and how that channeled into his drive for his cause of youth empowerment. He was basically a big kid himself; he planned to fill up water guns with a LSD/water mixture to shoot at the cops if they charged at him in Chicago. Overall, from what I could tell from this video, he lived by and channeled both the complex and simple feelings of the youth counterculture of the time; he was individualistic, frustrated, in the mood for good times, and thinking about where he was going to get some cool new drugs and if he would get laid that night.

 

"Abbie Hoffman on Yippie Tactics – 1968." YouTube. Web. 15 Apr 2010. .

The Policy of Yippeie

In the excerpt I read of Revolution for the Hell of It by Abbie Hoffman, the Yippie! plans for the Chicago convention are outlined and a invitation to come to Chicago is given. The entire event would be conspicuously and strategically in the presence of the media so that the images of Yippies would be scattered throughout the nation’s television sets. This way, the interpretation of what Yippie was could be given to the individual to decide. “Yippie! was in the eye of the beholder…” Hoffman wrote(Hoffman). The rest of the excerpt talked about the activities those coming to Chicago could expect. There would be workshops about how to start and maintain communes, discussions about pot, lessons in Guerilla Theater, talk of more effective ways to avoid the draft, performances by street theater troops, and obviously anti-war/anti-LBJ demonstrations. There was also to be over thirty live bands playing for free. People were encouraged to come and camp out only if they were willing to participate. As the excerpt reads, “Do not come prepared to sit and watch and be fed and cared for. It just won’t happen that way. It is time to become a life-actor. The days of the audience died with the old America. If you don’t have a thing to do, stay home, you’ll only get in the way”(Hoffman). There is also talk in this excerpt of how the organizers were still trying to get a permit to demonstrate and hold their event legally, but were basically being ignored by city officials. It goes on to remind the potential Chicago attendee that it was “…the United States, 1968,” and to “remember. If you are afraid of violence you shouldn’t have crossed the border”(Hoffman). This warning shows that conflict was expected, and even welcomed.

I found this small excerpt to be pretty interesting. If anything, the title of the book was enough catch my eye. Throughout the piece, I really enjoyed Hoffman’s use of effective yet common speech rhetoric. The content was pretty cool too. I’m not going to lie, the advertisement makes me wish that the event was something being planned for this summer rather than forty-two years ago. I also found it interesting how the goal of the convention was not only to protest the state of the nation, but also to bring factions of the counterculture together. It was, as Hoffman said, a method to bring the community together and get people with like goals but not of like mind talking. My favorite quote from the excerpt that deals with that is this: “The radical will say to the hippie: ‘Get together and fight, you are getting the shit kicked out of you.’ The hippie will say to the radical: ‘Your protest is so narrow, your rhetoric so boring, your ideological power plays so old-fashioned’ Each can help the other, and Chicago“(Hoffman). So basically, as the excerpt goes, I really like the overall feel of it. It has a sense of urgency with which it draws you in, and it has a feel of organization and order which is ironic, since its goal was to organize chaos.

 Hoffman, Abbie. Revolution for the Hell of It. Print. 

Technology Petition

For my live interaction, I decided to do my own form of protest by writing up a petition against the unnecessary censorship of our school's internet. I figured this would be a good chance to not only do some similar things as those in the sixties, but also get some reactions from the student body about the topic of the school internet. It was a pretty neat experience- going around from lunch table to lunch table explaining the petition and asking the students' opinions on the subject. Every single person I talked to could relate to the problems with the web site blocking. One source that wishes to remain anonymous explained that the filter doesn't even do its job that well. "Porn is still accessible" he told me. I'm not going to take his statement with full seriousness, but he does point out the problem that while blocking innocent things, the filter doesn't always catch what it was designed to.
The reasons why I chose to a petition as my interaction are that I really didn't want to do an interview, I thought it'd be cool to protest something, and I didn't actually have the guts or a cause to actually PROTEST. This is similar to the Yippie's movement in that the subjects of both protests were disliked by a large majority of people. This is a stretch, I know. The Vietnam War and internet censorship are totally different, but it's the closest I could get. Overall, I found the activity to be beneficial for me to understand the process of discussing one's views with other people. So although not as drastic, controversial, or interesting as the Yippies, my small scale recreation helped me to better understand the guts they had. It took a lot for them to actually protest something worth protesting and be willing to get beat up in the process.

Richard J. Daley

In the article "Daley May Outlast Father As Chicago Mayor" by David Schaper, the political infamy of the Daley family is examined briefly. Most well known is Richard J. Daley, a long time mayor of Chicago who was, unfortunately for him, in office in 1968. He was looking forward to having Chicago be host city of the Democratic National Convention, and did not want the annoyance of long haired hippies interrupting this important event. One close friend of his stated, "He was the last of the big city bosses, he had a great pride in Chicago. He had a great love for the city. Throw into that a good measure of his Irish temper and you had a volatile mix"(Schaper). The article goes on to say that Daley's police response to the protesters' infringement on his turf was compared to that of "Gestapo"-like tactics. Deemed a police riot by a later inquiry, such handling of the convention week issues reflected poorly on the powers of Chicago and, ultimately, Mayor Daley himself.
I kind of have to agree with the article in that Mayor Daley could have handled the situation better, before and during the conflict. One news reporter from the time remembers, "There were plenty of warnings for anyone who was listening that there was going to be confrontation in the streets of Chicago. The only question was how was it going to be handled and what would the ultimate outcome of it be"(Schaper). I also thought the article was interesting in that it gave more of Daley and city's point of view and opinions of what happened. Although the majority of the nation disapproved of Daley's use of law enforcement to "maintain tight, iron-fisted control"(Schaper), most of the citizens of Chicago praised his crowd control tactics. I guess I had expected more of a negative reaction from the Chicago citizens than what I found, so that fact from the article surprised me. Overall, the article is okay. It talks a lot about Richard J. Daley's son, Richard M. Daley, both of which have been Chicago mayors and the latter not really relevant to my topic. The names got a little confusing to say the least. The article did help, though, in understanding better the city government's role in and thoughts on the riots.

Schaper, David. "Daley May Outlast Father As Chicago Mayor." National Public Radio (2008): n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2010. .

Chicago 10 Review

In the Brett Morgen documentary, Chicago 10, a fresh view of the Chicago 1968 fiasco is given. The film also portrays the infamous court case that took place after the convention, in which eight activists and organizers were charged with "conspiracy to incite a riot". The movie takes a close look at the pivotal characters of the Yippie movement (people like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin) as well as the city officials and police officers. It uses news media footage as well as private recordings to immerse the viewer in the atmosphere of Chicago. There are moments of contagious positive energy, but also dark scenes that can best be described as one movement leader put it, "Chicago has become a concentration camp"(Chicago 10). Another big part of the movie was animation. All of the courtroom scenes were animated, but the dialogue and events came straight from the trial's manuscripts. This documentary mixed modern editing with historical footage to create an innovative portrayal of the events of 1968 Chicago.

I absolutely loved this documentary. It brings all the events onto a whole new level of realness. It's one thing to read about a feeling or to look at a picture of a crazy mob; you can only get so much out of that. But, to see footage of dancing hippies at the Festival of Life and hear the vivid rhetoric from Yippie's loudspeakers is something different. To watch the reactions of peace marchers when cops and national guardsmen start spraying them with tear gas and charging after them with barbed wire covered trucks is a totally different experience than just reading some article about it. I also enjoyed the focus on the personalities of the people who organized it all. Abbie Hoffman and the other Yippies have a sarcastic, unedited yet lovable quality that was very entertaining. The movie doesn't edit or bleep out any words, which I was glad of since it made it more genuine. I found the trial in the aftermath to be very interesting as well. The movie does a great job of showing how exceptionally biased that Chicago courtroom was. I also learned something new thanks to this movie. Although all eight defendants were found "not guilty" of "conspiracy to incite a riot", they were sentenced to a couple of years of jail time for various contempt of court charges. Their lawyers were also sent to jail for such charges as well. Overall, I thought the movie was pretty great. It took a while to get used to the animation at parts, but I got over it. I definitely recommend this movie. It'll have you saying "power to the people"(Chicago 10) by the end.

Chicago 10. Dir. Brett Morgen. Independent Lens, 2007.

Growing Tensions

In the months and years before August of 1968, civil unrest in Chicago had been growing. Not only had there been race riots in many of the Chicago neighborhoods (especially during the summer of '66); there was also a festering animosity between the wild haired hippies and the straight laced police and city leaders. James P. Turner's essay, "Chicago '68 The Unconventional One", paints a picture of the tension that was in the Chicago streets. With shouts like "Off the pigs!"and obvious and purposeful infractions of the law, the counterculture participants were not afraid to get the Chicago cops riled up. On the flip side, the police officers weren't afraid to swing their billy clubs indiscriminately - battering protesters, innocent bystanders, and media officials alike. Overall, a distrustful prejudice grew between the Chicago P.D. and the hippies/Yippies. One off duty cop was reported to have given a ride to a teenager hitchhiking home, and upon hearing that the long haired teenager was a supporter of Eugene McCarthy (the anti-Vietnam presidential hopeful) the man "went ballistic, called him a "Hippie", hit him in the head and broke his glasses...chased him down, and, with pistol drawn, forced him back into his private car. He then drove him to his suburban home and aroused the family with loud banging. "Here's your Hippie kid!"" (Turner). Such exchanges were becoming more and more common as the date of the convention drew closer.
Overall, I think the essay does a pretty good job illustrating the mounting tension of both sides. One story in it describes some hot head protesters screaming profanity at cops, trying to start a fight, while others like in the paragraph above show other unprovoked attacks on members of the hippie culture. I was also pleased to see such an accurate, less opinionated account of the events that took place during and before the convention. The author, James P. Turner, was actually present throughout the convention and witnessed many of the riots. The essay brings light to both sides of the issue, and the with the tensions described it seems to say that conflict when these two groups met head on would have been inevitable.


Turner, James P. "Chicago '68 The Unconventional One." Turner Home. N.p., 1996. Web. 1 Apr 2010. .

The Whole World is Watching

1968 Chicago, generally the thing that comes to mind (if anything comes to mind at all) is the infamous protester versus police riots that occurred. In the Chicago Tribune article, "Democratic Convention 1968" an overall picture is give of the violent chaos that played out over those infamous days. The clash took place in August of 1968 during the Democrat's presidential nomination convention. Over 10,000 anti-war demonstrators under the satirical direction of the Youth International Party, most commonly known as the Yippies, had gathered not only to protest the ever unpopular Vietnam War, but also the potential re-nomination of Lyndon B. Johnson. They were met by a police opposition 12,000 strong as well as 6,000 National Guard troops. Ignoring the order of the police, the protesters continued with their mission of civil unrest. What happened next was nothing less than a police riot. The mass of news media present filmed and photographed the shocking violence and brutality used by the police to subdue demonstrators amid shouts from the crowd of "The whole world is watching." The chant was true. The alarmingly violent fiasco went down as an embarrassing blemish in Chicago's law enforcement and civil history.
Such an event grabs my attention. How does order fall apart like that? Was the riot planned by militant extremists? that's what the city thought when they put organizers of the demonstration on trial. Or, as others believe, it was the protesters that instigated the violence. However, I don't think that's how it all went down. I tend to side with the arguments that the bulk of the chaos was wrought by the police and guardsmen. Yes, they were following orders. Yes, the demonstrators were resisting and fighting back. But, that does not give excuse for the brutal methods used to dispel the marchers as is described here, "Officers pushed people through a plate-glass window and then, according to witnesses, attacked the dazed victims as they lay amid broken glass"(Chicago Tribune). On the flip side, I also know that history rarely has a single one cause for something, and that there are more than just one or two sides to a story. That's why more research is necessary to understand what went wrong at this free expression movement.

"Democratic Convention 1968" Chicago Tribune n. pag. Web. 24 Mar 2010. .