By SOPHIA TAREEN, LEA SKENE, JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JOEY CAPPELLETTI, Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — As for Chicago's famous protests, the numbers ahead of the Democratic National Convention weren't remarkable. But organizers say they did something that leaders inside didn't: the war in Gaza Part of the agenda.
The missions were high for Chicago. Although more political rallies happen than in another American city, comparisons with the infamous congress of 1968when police clashed with protesters on live television were hard to shake. And a small unauthorized protest which led to dozens of arrests, and the tense clashes between the police didn’t help matters.
But the organizers Who won the correct to protest near the United Center and the police, who spent greater than a yr Preparationsay they succeeded in spreading different views in regards to the country's third largest city.
“This is a very large group of people who are not willing to stand by and watch people commit genocide in our city,” said student organizer Liz Rathburn. “We showed that to the world.”
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Expectations for enormous protests in Chicago – which took place one month after the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee – were high. biggest protest In Milwaukee, about 1,000 people were present through the convention.
Chicago is understood for its mass mobilizations, including in 2006, when almost half 1,000,000 People took to the streets to demand the rights of immigrants.
Organizers had predicted that as much as 20,000 people would attend a march and rally on the opening day of the convention. While they acknowledged that the number ultimately was not that top, they disputed the town's much lower estimate of about 3,500 attendees.
Hatem Abudayyeh, a lead organizer and co-founder of the US Palestinian Community Network, said he was pleased with the turnout and message of the mostly family-friendly demonstrations, which included the Chicago-area's large Palestinian population.
Although activists supporting quite a few progressive causes got here to Chicago, they were united by a pro-Palestinian, anti-war message.
“We were the show,” Abudayyeh said. “The excitement was out here on the street.”
Most of the key protests were relatively peaceful, but dozens of arrests were made after a bunch blocked a part of the Security fence across the United Center and after an unauthorized demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate.
Chicago Police Commissioner Larry Snelling, who has been highly visible in any respect major protests, said police leadership and communication with protest organizers contributed to the calm across the convention. While Chicago Police authorities outside the town Although they helped with security on the convention, Chicago police forces were left alone to handle the protests.
During the most important protest marches, a whole lot of Chicago cops lined the streets on bicycles and guided protesters through the residential streets surrounding the United Center.
“We learned here that preparation is everything,” Snelling said Thursday. “Success requires two things: opportunity and preparation. We had the opportunity to respond to the Democratic National Convention, and we were prepared.”
However, the police have also been criticized for his or her tactics and excessive police presence. In Milwaukee, the police were conspicuously absent from the most important protests against the convention.
At an indication outside the Israeli consulate in downtown Chicago – organized by a bunch outside the major activist coalition – police far outnumbered dozens of protesters.
Lines of police in riot gear and wielding wood batons cordoned off a busy street in the town center to corral protesters. At one point, police surrounded protesters in a square, leading to several minor injuries and dozens of arrests.
Snelling praised the officers' actions but denied that police “encircled” protesters – a tactic banned in Chicago under a settlement decree. He called the response “proportionate.”
In total, there have been 74 arrests from Monday to Thursday and no serious injuries to protesters or cops occurred, Snelling said.
Nevertheless, the photographs of the clashes between Chicago police and demonstrators brought back memories of 1968.
The demonstration in front of the consulate was promoted with the slogan “Make it great like '68.” Whenever police and protesters approached, activists began chanting “The whole world is watching,” a slogan utilized in the 1968 protests.
Snelling and City guide have repeatedly identified that Chicago has evolved within the greater than 50 years since its founding, including by hosting the Democratic National Convention in 1996, which went largely easily.
“If the 1968 convention went down in history as an example of police brutality, then the 2024 convention will go down in history as an example of constitutional policing,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Friday.
Snelling put it more clearly: “Can we stop talking about 1968? 2024 is a new standard.”
Activists also took responsibility for the largely peaceful protests, saying they’d their very own security forces and followed city regulations.
A small group of delegates who’re a part of the “unbound” movement expressed dissatisfaction that they might not speak through the meeting and complained that mentions of Palestinians – who make up the overwhelming majority of 40,000 dead killed in Gaza since October – were sparse. During the congressional program on Wednesday, the parents of a 23-year-old American who was kidnapped hostage by Hamas through the October 7 attack in southern Israel. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
However, activists admitted that the group was smaller than expected.
Some protesters speculated that recent Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris could have kept some people home. While she was labeled an adjunct to the war on signs and in chants on the protests, many said they’d wait until she announced her plans for U.S. involvement within the war.
“I am curious to see what she is doing for health care. I am worried about her policies on Palestine and Gaza,” said Palestinian Fedaa Balouta. “Our voice counts.”
Bayan Ruyyashi, a 30-year-old biologist from suburban Chicago, said she had little hope that the protests, no matter their size, would have a noticeable impact on convention attendees.
Rather, she said she had participated in a March on Wednesday in order that their three children – aged 8, 5 and 6 months – could experience this sign of community and solidarity.
“I want them to feel that we have support. This is not just what we hear from the Democrats,” said Ruyyashi, whose family is Palestinian and Jordanian. “They need to know that we are fighting for our homeland.”
Originally published:
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