For that matter, it was exactly five decades ago Tuesday that the protests taking place to express objections to U.S policy in Vietnam reached the peak of some protesters being thrown through the glass of the hotel’s front windows – and some protesters who tried fleeing police beatings wound up being dragged back outside the hotel before being administered a walloping in the name of “law and order.”
I’VE
HEARD THE stories throughout my life, and those images pop into my head every
time I have reason to walk past the hotel. Trying to envision the carnage that
occurred in a stretch of Michigan Avenue that would like to think itself too
refined for such uncouth behavior.
It
definitely was not the typical presidential nominating convention such as the
one held in Chicago 28 years later – that event held at the United Center felt
like a political pep rally and I recall many people wishing their access to the
arena included a pass to the team clubhouses so they could stop by and check
out Michael Jordan’s locker.
What was supposed to happen |
But
it caught my attention that amongst all the stories being published in recent
weeks commemorating the fifth-decade anniversary (of sorts) of the event that
some people are determined to put their own partisan political spin on what happened
all those years ago.
Even
from some who, like myself, only have second-hand memories and tales to tell of
the events of the Democratic National Convention of ’68.
THE
CONVENTION HAPPENINGS did eventually result in an investigation – one that
found the police to be responsible for the outlandish and violent behavior that
occurred. A “police riot” was the official term used to describe the events.
Convention craze incorporated into film |
Even
though then-Mayor Richard J. Daley always tried defending police behavior by
citing it as “fact” that nobody was killed amongst the violence. As though he
wanted to think police showed restraint in the way they conducted themselves.
Similar
to those people who these days probably think police officer Joseph Van Dyke –
who is set to go on trial in a couple of weeks – was merely serving and
protecting the Chicago populace when he fired all those shots into a teenager
who may or may not have posed a physical threat to those nearby.
I
don’t doubt there are people who think it was 50 years ago today that the world
went haywire, and their idea of “Make America Great Again” includes returning to
those days when a cop was a hero – and the perps all got what they deserved.
Convention outcome an afterthought? |
I
LITERALLY STUMBLED across an anonymous Internet comment recently about how it
was the reporting of the convention happenings (both inside the International
Amphitheater where the political rallies occurred and outside where the
protests happened) that was flawed.
It
was Walter Cronkite, this person wants to believe, who “lied” to the American
people about what happened in Chicago, all as part of a plot to promote the
anti-war message that the activists were trying to spread.
The
“most trusted man in America” was supposedly an un-American freak? A conspiracy
between the protesters and news media organizations?
It
definitely seems like someone is trying to revise history in the image of The
Donald; making sure our perception of past events coincides with this modern-day
Age of Trump we’re all supposed to want to live in now.
I
don’t doubt that tales of protesters throwing bags of excrement at police have
some bearing in truth. It was just the kind of behavior that would offend
certain types of people into voting for Richard M. Nixon’s “law and order”
platform and to thinking the only real wrong was that he was driven from office
six years later.
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