a blast from the not see parties past

Date:   12/7/2006 3:44:19 PM ( 18 y ago)

The Democrats and their hosts in Chicago went out of their way to portray the 1996 Democratic National Convention as the paragon of openness and unity. But reports from outside the moderate mainstream indicate an intolerance for political dissent that harks back to the days of the 1968 convention.
The Democrats had no intention of allowing this year's convention to turn into a public melee between radicals, reporters and police. Protesters this year are on shorter leashes, neatly swept under the rug with other "undesirables" (such as the residents of the neighborhood bordering the convention center) by a "kinder, gentler" Chicago police department. And the spin doctors are out in force, ensuring that precisely the right impression is broadcast to a stupefied TV audience.
Witness Clinton's heartwarming journey across the heartland on his way to Chicago. Mainstream press accounts overflowed with effusive praise for the president's jubilant journey and chronicled the enthusiastic crowds that turned out en masse to catch a glimpse of him as he choo-chooed by. In one of his classic mixed messages, the president used an anachronistic mode of travel dubbed the "Twenty-first Century Express" to illustrate his party's commitment to the future. Helicopters followed behind, carrying loads of high tech equipment, beaming images of his progress to cheering delegates in Chicago. But the delegates and the television audience didn't see the whole picture. Like the rest of the convention, the final product was carefully staged for prime time.
Clinton arrived in Ashland, Kentucky a few days after announcing plans to regulate tobacco as a drug. An Orlin Grabbe report alleges that the move made Clinton so unpopular in town that state employees were ordered to turn out for the rally to ensure that a sufficiently large crowd greeted the president. Not wanting to spoil the carefully-planned mood, the Secret Service preemptively removed 100 protesting farmers from the scene before the president arrived. They could, after all, use the sticks on which their signs were mounted to attack the president.
According to Washington Times reporter Andy Thibault's article "Secret Service accused of preventing protests," this pattern was repeated throughout the journey to Chicago. After all, no one wanted a repeat of the embarrassing "You suck" incident. On the president's last trip to Chicago in July, he was told by Patricia Mendoza, "You suck and those boys died," in reference to the 19 Americans killed in Saudia Arabia bombing. She was accused of threatening the president, and both she and her husband were arrested for disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, back at the convention, the Chicago police department was taking steps to make sure that would-be protesters stayed in line -- and out of sight. Let there be no mistake, the times they have a-changed. This time around, demonstrators had to enter a lottery to "win" their chance at free expression. The lucky few (20 per day) earned the right to herd into a protest pen across the street from the convention hall and demonstrate to their hearts' content. A federal judge dismissed an ACLU request to give more protesters a chance at bending delegates' ears.
More than 100 police officers met and turned away a parade of activists called "Not on the Guest List" when they got within a block of the United Center on Tuesday. The same fate awaited the Reverend Al Sharpton and his 300 welfare reform protesters the next day as they approached the hall. Elsewhere in the city on Wednesday, eleven "Not on the Guest List" activists (including Chicago Seven member David Dellinger and the son of late Yippie Abbie Hoffman) were arrested while trying to enter the Justice Department offices to discuss American political prisoners.
Both inside the hall and out, every move was tightly choreographed for the cameras. But, of course, they had to be the RIGHT cameras. When pro-life demonstrators attempted to close down a West Side abortion clinic, the CPD cracked down on not only the protesters, but also members of the alternative press who were filming the event.
According to a report from CounterMedia, an alternative media coalition, "videographer Eddy Nix was taping pro-lifers (in the immediate vicinity of other members of the media) when they, sensing that Nix was not with the mainstream press, motioned to the police that he should be removed. Police checked Nix's press pass and deemed it insufficient to prove that he was a member of the 'official' media." He was then arrested for disorderly conduct.
The group reported a pattern of harassment throughout the convention. A CounterMedia van was pulled over and searched twice within a ten minute period on Thursday. At the second stop, officers exposed the group's film, threatened to arrest them for driving an unsafe vehicle, and backed off only after nine other CounterMedia members began taping the confrontation.
During President Clinton's speech, Chicago police raided Active Resistance, a counter-convention conference organized by the activist group Autonomous Zone. While the Clinton pledged his support for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, the CPD was pepper-spraying young protesters, sending two to the hospital. Officers searched the premises and confiscated cameras, despite the fact that they did not have warrants. No arrests were made. CounterMedia reported that Active Resistance members were in Chicago "to attend workshops and discussion groups on issues ranging from community organizing to alternative economics."
Active Resistance received no mainstream media attention when they staged their Festival for the Oppressed earlier in the week, when eight participants were arrested, along with six videographers whose film was destroyed. Mainstream reporters were too preoccupied with Tom Hayden and his ex-hippie cohorts rubbing elbows with Mayor Daley and singing Age of Aquarius with the cast of Hair.
In the end, this was the angle that the press stuck with -- how unity and good will prevailed in Chicago to erase the bad memories of the 1968 convention. The New York Times, while getting in repeated digs about how events inside the United Center were obviously staged, turned a blind eye to what was happening outside.
To keep the "rabble" in line, the Chicago Housing Authority imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on residents at the Henry Horner Homes, the housing project across from the convention center. The Times offered the following spin on the crackdown in its post-convention wrap-up: "Now that (Henry Horner Homes resident) James Jackson has tasted life for a couple of weeks without drive-by shootings and brazen drug dealers on every corner, he never wants the Democratic National Convention to leave town."
Ah, yes -- if only the convention could last forever. Go back to sleep, America. Your leaders have everything very much under control.
(c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.


 

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