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. .