The Movement and The Sixties by Terry H. Anderson

Author:Terry H. Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-02-17T22:58:00+00:00

The events of that week outraged activists and many liberals. Antiwar students felt that the nomination of Humphrey demonstrated that the Democratic party was hopeless, controlled by a corrupt machine. Many now experienced the same disillusionment in liberalism that civil rights workers felt four years earlier at the convention in Atlantic City. Moreover, many young activists began to believe that the U. S. government was no longer a democracy; instead, they claimed, it had become illegitimate, an outlaw institution led by war criminals. American politics was bankrupt. More youths became alienated, attracted to the counterculture. Older liberals also were discouraged. During the next months McCarthy refused to support Humphrey for president and many others formed the New Democratic Coalition. Some citizens began to question the role of the police in society: Should taxpayers have more control over the men in blue? Senator George McGovern denounced Daley and his "Gestapo," labeled the convention a "blood bath," and the New York Times declared that the mayor's use of force "brought shame to the city, embarrassment to the country." Tom Wicker added, "The truth was these were our children in the streets, and the Chicago police beat them up," and columnist Mike Royko, noting that many cops had bruised hands and fingers, urged local citizens to stop smashing their faces against policeman's knuckles. As for radicals, police behavior only shifted many toward more militancy, toward more violent rhetoric and behavior. Repression did not suppress the radicals; on the contrary, as yippie Stew Albert said, Chicago was "a revolutionary wet dream come true." 32

More conservative viewers said hit 'em again, harder. "The police stand was admirable," said a Chicago attorney, and a chemist added, "If other mayors followed Daley's action, then we'd have a much better society." A local woman agreed, "Ship all hippies, yippies, or whatever they call themselves to Russia. Everyone should fly the American flag to show these nit-wits what real Americans think." During the next weeks Daley proclaimed that he had received over 100,000 letters, and that 95 percent supported his tough stand. He was proud of his police, he said, for "no one was killed." He blamed the conflict on outside agitators and Communists who had been plotting to assassinate Humphrey, McCarthy, and perhaps a young female McCarthy worker and then blame it on the police. The protesters were "Communist stinkos, traitors and no-accounts," declared Democratic Senator Russell Long, and the Chicago Tribune labeled them "bearded, dirty, lawless rabble." Although Daley had at his disposal over 20,000 armed policemen and soldiers facing a few thousand unarmed activists, he declared that the behavior of his police was the only alternative to allowing "a lawless violent group of terrorists to menace the lives of millions of our people . . . and take over the streets of Chicago." Cars soon sported bumper stickers: WE SUPPORT MAYOR DALEY AND HIS CHICAGO POLICE.

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