Remember Chicago 1968. Police Riots. Who was there? What's your story?

[skip fox]

A thread to collect stories from the Democratic Convention 1968, inside and outside the hall, in the parks and on the streets, from citizens of the city and The Yippies, from Mobilization to whoever.

Who was there?

What was it like?

I'm sure there are print histories from the ground up, but what about older DUers, like me? What was your story?

(I was 21 that fall and hiked in from Bowling Green, Ohio. Went first, as someone must have directed, to Mobilization Housing in order to find a place to stay. While there, I started helping out and became a regular worker for several of the first few days, going up to Lincoln Park in the afternoons or evenings, being pushed down side streets by cops in riot gear--30+ at a time pushed by 3-5 cops, so it was easy to slip to the side and return. Mobilization Housing had its storefront window shot out each night, we thought by off-duty cops with a shotgun, so I volunteered to stay overnight maybe my 3rd or 4th day there. I got in a little early and was approached by a presumptive fellow demonstrator--I now realize was a cop--who asked me if I wanted to get a cup of coffee down the street. I went with him and as we walked he handed me a joint. We passed it back and forth walking until it was a roach and all of a sudden cops were all over us. I remember several cars and amybe two on foot. They didn't find anything on me and they couldn't find the roach I'd tossed, but the other guy (the cop) had a grocery bag, paper of course back then, folded over once and stuffed with grass, as unlikely a way of carrying pot then as today. Interestingly, they frisked us both and didn't find it on him the first time. After finding nothing on me, he must had nodded or something. They found it the second time. In Illinois back then, there was a communitive possession law that stated if you were with someone who had pot, they could arrest you for possession as well. So I spent a night in the precinct cling, then was transfered to Cook County Jail where my father bailed me out. Once I was in a room filled with tired cops arguing politics. I was at the head of a small classroom, maybe a briefing room. It was a civil although animated exchange. I could't remember if Mobilization Housing found a replacement that night. I returned to Bowling Green where I watched the riots really heat up--much more than the first few days and night--on t.v. I spent the next 8 months or so paying off a $2,000 bribe by working the afternoon shift at a factory north of Bowling Green. Such is my story. Minus a beautiful older lady--30?-Some things I keep close.)