Saturday, June 20, 2009
This is one reunion Tom Hayden and the remaining members of the Chicago Seven probably won’t be attending. Next Friday the Fraternal Order of Police is planning a “Chicago Riot Cops Reunion” to bring together and celebrate the men in blue who participated in the 1968 riots during the Democratic National Convention. The ordeal became infamous largely because of then-Mayor Richard Daley’s orders for the Chicago police to crack down on the thousands of protesters who were picketing outside the convention.
Those organizing the police reunion say they want to “set straight what really happened” that summer, according to the reunion’s website. “The only thing that stood between Marxist street thugs and public order was a thin blue line of dedicated, tough Chicago police officers,” reads the website. “Chicago police officers who participated in the riots continue to endure unending criticism–all of which is unwarranted, inaccurate and wrong.”
Organizers say money raised at the reunion will be given to the Chicago Police Memorial Fund, which helps families of officers killed or disabled in the line of duty.
Of course, such a reunion wouldn’t be complete without a protest. Members of Chicago Copwatch, a watchdog group, plan to march outside the police gathering and make clear that the ’68 riots were “one of the largest mass beatings in Chicago history.”
A national commission report, known as the Walker Report, interviewed 1,400 witnesses, studied FBI reports and film footage of the confrontations, and ended up characterizing the event as a “police riot.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
1968 Chicago Riot Cops to Hold Reunion (by Erika Slife, Chicago Tribune)
March Against Police Violence At the 1968 Riot Cops Reunion (Chicago Cop Watch)
The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts-Historical Documents Federal Judicial Center)
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