As the Democratic National Convention (DNC) gets underway, Chicago businesses have boarded up their store fronts in expectation of the “mostly peaceful” rioting that typically accompanies massive left-wing protests. A coalition of 125 anti-Semitic organizations have organized seven approved protests — and likely several unapproved ones — that are expected to attract roughly 100,000 demonstrators throughout the week.
Radical activist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have drawn explicit connections to 1968, the last DNC to be held in Chicago, when anti-war protestors clashed violently with police in “what became known as the ‘Battle on Michigan Ave.’” Like 1968, this presidential election also features an aging Democratic incumbent who withdrew late in the process, leading to an uncompetitive primary, as well as a progressive Minnesotan on the national ticket.
At least some DNC protestors are contemplating violence, including an “independent journalist” who posted on social media about how he was “getting prepped for the DNC” with goggles, a bandana, a tool for breaking car windows, a foldable saw, other improvised weapons, and a hammer-and-sickle koozie. Before the convention began, radical activist group Code Pink contemplated ways to sneak into the DNC, and they launched a protest barge down the Chicago River, reportedly carrying Bill Ayers, former Weather Underground leader, among other passengers.
Chicago police prepared rigorously for expected protests. Officers conducted drills beforehand on how to deal with riots, upsetting commuter traffic. They mobilized police boats and choppers and had the National Guard on-hand to provide reinforcements. When demonstrators assembled Sunday, hundreds of police officers stood ready to prevent any disorderly conduct.
Protestors did indeed stage a demonstration on Sunday, before the DNC even officially began. Approximately 200 demonstrators had assembled by 5:30 p.m., with closer to 500 as the march progressed south. (Later demonstrations are expected to dwarf this pre-demonstration.) Another estimate around 8 p.m. by a local CBS affiliate put the number in the thousands.
Shortly after 7:00 p.m., organizers sent out a text alert for activists to “mobilize” to Chicago’s Navy Pier, the site of the DNC, in order to “disrupt [the] DNC delegate [welcome] party.” The pro-Hamas crowd may have hijacked another protest, as some demonstrators marched along in costumes designed to look like abortion pills, and a local news outlet said that “what was supposed to be a reproductive rights protest has turned into a ‘Free Palestine’ protest.”
Other demonstrators also strayed off-message, carrying the Progress Pride flag, as well as the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Muslim-majority country in southeastern Europe (and site of a U.S. military intervention in the 1990s).
Some demonstrators engaged in the usual folly, breaking off from the group “to throw trash and water bottles at police.” This may have led to what appear to be Sunday’s only arrests, as police apprehended several protestors, reportedly from a new group calling itself “Behind Enemy Lines,” which makes it sound like a hostile insurgency operation.
However, most of the protestors proceeded to the pier, where they set up sound equipment by the water. “This is only the beginning of the week where we have our justice!” declared Muslim lawyer Jinan Chehade into a megaphone. She led the protestors in a chant, “welcome to hell week.” These are the same radical activists Democratic politicians praise and pamper — because they are afraid of them, it seems.
Those who fear these demonstrators have plenty of reason to do so. They carried banners and signs stating “Revolution Until Victory” and “Globalize the Intifada.” Others chanted, “DNC go home! Or we’re gonna bring the war home!” These are not the flower-throwing pacifists of the 1960s.
It’s unclear how, but it seems some activists did manage to get inside the ballroom later in the evening. At one point, a young woman in a mask ran up on stage, grabbed a microphone, and started yelling something that would have been more comprehensible without her mask. It had something to do with how “150,000 people have been killed,” an absurd casualty figure that is several times larger than that estimated by Hamas itself.
The protestors eventually moved on, congregating at the Chicago Hilton after dark, around 10:15 p.m., “where delegates are presumably staying.” There they staged a loud demonstration, presumably to disrupt the sleep of DNC delegates. This recalls the tactics used against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when he visited D.C. in late July.
Yet again, the crowd displayed a mix of pro-Hamas (“U.S. Politicians Are Complicit in Genocide”) and pro-abortion (“Get Abortion Pills By Mail Today,” with a QR code) sentiments. At least the pro-death crowd is consistent.
Around 11:00 p.m., the demonstrators “started to disperse,” security told Jewish reporter Angela Van Der Pluym. Even revolutionaries are constrained by the limits a sovereign God set for their bodies, and there is likely a long week of disruptive protesting ahead. “We shall see what they do next,” Van Der Pluym concluded.
At least no one was shot. Welcome to Chicago!
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.
