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.