City Parks example essay topic

The Chicago Seven 1968 was one of the most turbulent years in America history. The Vietnam War became the longest war in U.S. history. American casualties were higher than 30,000. Anti-war protests grew larger and louder on college campuses. At Columbia, students took control of the office of the President and held three persons hostage to protest the school's connection to the defense Department. Following the April assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis riots happened in 125 cities leaving 46 dead.

After Senator Eugene McCarthy challenged President Linden Johnson over his support of the war, Johnson withdrew from the presidential race. Senator Robert Kennedy entered the race after Johnson left, only to be shot and killed right after he won the California primary. Feminists picketed the Miss America pageant, and black students demanded Black Studies programs. These were just some of the events leading to the Chicago Seven trial.

The Year was 1968; the place Chicago, Illinois; the cause protesting to highlight their opposition to the Viet Nam War at The Democratic National Convention infront of the media. Many groups conspired to Rally in the Streets Of those groups included National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE), Youth International Party (YIP or YIPPIES), The Black Panthers and Students for a democratic society (SDS). On the other hand, Chicago officials, led by Mayor Richard Daley, saw the Democratic National Convention as a grand opportunity to promote their city to the world. They did all they could to not have anti-war demonstrators spoil their plans. Before the convention, talks between the City and protest groups denied the request of the Yippies to allow demonstrators to sleep in city parks. City Administrator Stahl said that an 11 p.m. curfew would be enforced.

City police were ordered to post signs in parks announcing the curfew. As the Convention got nearer, Daley put the city's 12,000 police officers on twelve-hour shifts. In addition, 7.500 Army troops and 6,000 national guardsmen, requested by Daley to aid in keeping order, arrived in Chicago. The Seven Included: Jerry Rubin the radical co-founder of Youth International Party, Abbie Hoffman the leader of Youth International Party, David Dellinger a evangelical Christian Socialist, John Froines and Lee Weiner (the two forgotten members of the Chicago Seven because these two were acquitted by the jury), Thomas Hayden co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society, Rennie Davis was the National director of community organizing programs for SDS, and Bobby Seale co founder of the Black Panthers.

All but Froines and Weiner were charged with inciting a riot Froines and Weiner were charged with conspiracy and making incendiary devices (stink bombs). Sunday, August 25 young people who gathered in the park and handed out flowers, smoked pot, made out, and listened to poetry. About 10: 30, a police officer with a megaphone walked through the park saying, 'The park is closing. If you stay in the park, you " ll be arrested. ' Some young people, most of them locals rather than out-of-town protesters, threw objects at his police car. At 11 p. m., police charged into the people still in the park, teargassing them and hitting them with billy clubs.

The clearing of the park continued for hours. Some kids ran around smashing car windows and vandalizing buildings. Police cracked more heads and fired more tear-gas grenades again the next night. They attacked about 3,000 people in Lincoln Park shortly after the 11 p.m. curfew. Testifying later about that night, Robert Pierson, an undercover officer working as Hoffman's bodyguard, said that the Yippie leader announced, 'We " re going to hold the park.

' Shortly after midnight, Tom Hayden became the first of the alleged conspirators to be arrested. An officer spotted Hayden letting the air out of the tires of a police car. A half hour later, Rennie Davis, the second to be arrested, stood at the barricades in Lincoln Park with a megaphone shouting at people to 'fight the pigs. ' Both were released the next day. August 27 was another wild day in Chicago. It began with a sunrise service of chants, prayers, and meditation in Lincoln Park, led by Allen Ginsberg.

Bobby Seale arrived in Chicago and addressed a crowd of about 2,000 in Lincoln Park. His speech, suggesting a violent response to police, was later made the basis for charging him with a violation of the 1968 Anti-Riot Act. Abbie Hoffman, furious with MOBE for its continued advocacy of non-violence, allegedly met with the Blackstone Rangers to persuade them to come to the park with weapons that night. In the Chicago Coliseum, about 4,000 persons gathered to hear David Dellinger, folk singer Phil Ochs, novelist William Burroughs and a variety of other peace movement celebrities. Shortly after 11 p. m., the nightly routine of clubbing and tear-gassing repeated in the park. Some enraged demonstrators smashed windows and streetlights.

Convention week violence came to a high on Wednesday, August 28. The day began with Abbie Hoffman being arrested while having breakfast and charged with public indecency for having written the word 'Fuck' on his forehead. (Hoffman said he did so to discourage the press from photographing him.) In the afternoon, Dellinger, Seale, Davis, and Hayden addressed 10,000 to 15,000 demonstrators at the band shell in Grant Park, across from the Convention's headquarters hotel, the Conrad Hilton. Tom Hayed allegedly told the audience: 'Make sure that if blood is going to flow, let it flow all over the city.

If we " re going to be disrupted and violated, let the whole stinking city be disrupted. I'll see you in the streets!' Around 3 p. m., some people in the crowd lowered an American flag from a flagpole and attempt to raise a red flag in its place. When the police move in to retrieve the American flag, Jerry Rubin yelled 'Kill the pigs! Kill the cops!' In another incident, Rennie Davis was clubbed into unconsciousness, taken to a hospital, then covered with a sheet and moved from room to room in a successful effort to foil police who planned to arrest Davis during a search of the hospital.

That evening, in the Chicago Amphitheater, Democrats nominated Hubert Humphrey as their candidate for President. Police stopped a nighttime march of about 1,500 people to the Amphitheater. They attacked demonstrators with tear gas and clubs at numerous sections of town. The clubbing and the tear-gassing finally let up on Thursday, but protest activities continued.

Senator Eugene McCarthy and comedian Dick Gregory were among those who addressed a crowd in Grant Park. Undercover police officer Irwin Bock met in the park with John Froines and Lee Weiner. Froines allegedly said that the demonstrators needed more ammunition to use against police. Weiner reportedly then suggested Molotov cocktails, adding that a good tactic might be to pick a target in the Loop and bomb it.

Weiner told Bock and others to get the bottles, sand, rags, and gasoline necessary to make the Molotov cocktails. On September 24, 1969, thirteen months after the riots, the trial of the so-called 'Chicago Eight' began in the twenty-third-floor courtroom of Judge Julius Hoffman. The Reason the are refereed to as the Chicago seven is because Bobby Seale case was severed from the rest of the cases. Some of the defendants, such as Tom Hayden, wanted to concentrate on winning jurors by showing weaknesses in the prosecution's case. Others, such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, saw the trial as an opportunity to get the attention of young people around the country.

They wanted to turn the trial into entertaining theater that would receive lots of attention in the press. To that end, the They would excite the days of the trial by wearing judicial robes, bringing a birthday cake into the courtroom, blowing kisses to the jury, not wearing their shirts, or placing the flag of the National Liberation Front on the defense table. After all was over The jury had begun its deliberations in the Trial when Judge Hoffman began sentencing each of the defendants and the two defense attorneys, William Kunstler and Leonard Wein glass, to lengthy prison terms on 159 specifications for contempt. The charges ranged from minor acts of disrespect (such as not standing for the judge) to playful acts (such as baring rib cages or blowing kisses to the jury) to insulting or questioning the integrity of the court ('liar,' 'hypocrite,' and 'fascist dog'). Hoffman sentenced William Kunstler, who seemingly became a brother of his clients over the course of the trial, to four years and thirteen days in jail. One reason for Kunstler was an incident on February 3 when he said 'I am going to turn back to my seat with the realization that everything I have learned throughout my life has come to taught, that there is no meaning in this court, there is no law in this court.

' The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed all contempt convictions, ruling that contempt convictions resulting in more than six months in prison require jury trials. Eventually all charges were over ruled and all eight were set free. As far as what the are doing now: Jerry Rubin was struck by a car while jaywalking in New York He worked on Wallstreet. Abbie Hoffman committed suicide after disappearing for several years.

Lee Weiner is now working on funding an AIDS research group. Bobby Seale is retired but still runs his own website. David Dellinger now 82 years old still protests to change the name of Columbus Day to Native American Day. John Froines is a professor at UCLA in the public health department. Thomas Hayden ironically was a delegate at the 1996 Democratic national convention and now stands a Californian senator. And Last Rennie Davis is a lecturists and venture capitalist manager.

There is no simple answer to the whether or not the Chicago defendants meant to start a riot in Chicago in 1968. Abbie Hoffman said, 'I don't know whether I'm innocent or I'm guilty. ' The reason for the confusion (as Norman Mailer pointed out) was that the alleged conspirators 'understood that you didn't have to attack the fortress anymore, just surround it, make faces at the people inside and let them have nervous breakdowns and destroy themselves. '.