The Democratic Convention of 1968 took place in Chicago. It took place in a year when the anti-Vietnam War movement and the counterculture were peaking. The event attracted 10,000 anti-war protesters. Chaos ensued as police clashed with demonstrators. Mayor Daley was determined to crush the demonstrators. On August 25, the cops used tear gas and clubs to disperse a crowd in Lincoln Park. On August 28, a crowd marched on the Hilton Hotel because it housed many delegates to the convention. In “the Battle of Michigan Avenue”, the police tore into the marchers. Some were pushed through a plate glass window. The marchers chanted “the whole country is watching” as national television broadcast the violence live. The event has been described as a “police riot”. Over the three days, more than 700 were arrested.
Eight men were charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot. Not eight police men. The indictments were encouraged by Pres. Nixon’s Justice Department. David Dellinger was a pacifist who headed the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis were leaders of the radical Students for a Democratic Society. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were leaders of the Yippies (the Youth International Party). They had proclaimed they would host a “Festival of Life” in Chicago. “Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, truth seekers, peacock freaks, poets, barricade jumpers, dancers, lovers and artists … We are there! There are 500,000 of us dancing in the streets, throbbing with amplifiers and harmony. We are making love in the parks …” As part of their political theater, they nominated a 145 pound pig (Pigasus) for President. John Froines and Les Weiner were local protest coordinators. The eighth defendant was Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panthers. Seale insisted on a separate trial and his own lawyer. He had not participated in the demonstrations. Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation, in any way) refused to take Seale’s complaints seriously. Seale proceeded to disrupt the trial to the point where Hoffman had him bound and gagged for three days. This was a typical response from the 74-year-old reactionary judge.
The trial began on Sept. 24. It was wild from the beginning with Hoffman and Rubin using the spotlight to make a mockery of the proceedings. The first day Hoffman stood and blew a kiss to the jury. The judge reacted with: “The jury is directed to disregard the kiss from Mister Hoffman.” Another day Hoffman and Rubin wore judge robes and then took them off and stomped on them. Naturally, the uptight judge issued 159 counts of contempt during the trial. There were times that a defense attorney would rise and the judge would proclaim “objection overruled” before the lawyer could say anything. The trial lasted five months. Some of the witnesses for the defense included Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Jesse Jackson. Defense attorney William Kuntsler argued that the violence was police overreaction to peaceful protests. Court TV would sell its soul for a trial like this. The trial was not broadcast, unfortunately.
On Feb. 18, 1970, the jury acquitted all of the seven of conspiracy. Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin were convicted of crossing state lines to incite a riot. The convictions were overturned in 1972. The appeals court criticized the behavior of Judge Hoffman and the prosecuting attorneys.
Netflix has a movie about the trial called “The Trial of the Chicago Seven”. I highly recommend it.
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/chicago-seven-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-trial-chicago-7-180976063/
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