The upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago has been drawing parallels to its 1968 predecessor for months now. Back then, members of the Chicago Police Department infamously attacked protesters and innocent bystanders on live television during a calamitous crackdown on crowds of anti-war protesters gathered outside.
While the violence of 1968 sticks out in the national memory, it’s only one piece of Chicago law enforcement’s long history of repressing social liberation movements that stretches back to the labor revolts of the 19th century.
Now, as tens of thousands of demonstrators prepare to descend on downtown Chicago to march on the 2024 DNC in protest of the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the decades-long effort to protect freedom of assembly and hold police accountable on the streets of Chicago is once again gaining national attention.
“There’s been an animus against leftist and progressive organizing throughout the history of Chicago … we’ve just perpetually seen the targeting and the retribution and violence against individuals who are progressive, leftist and in some cases liberal, protesting for different demands,” said Joey Mogul, director of partnerships at Movement Law Lab and a veteran attorney at the Chicago-based People’s Law Office, in an interview.
From the unlawful mass arrest of veterans and other demonstrators protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, to the police officers caught on camera beating protesters during the scandal-plagued response to the uprisings for racial justice in 2020, Chicago police are notorious for brutal crackdowns on activists. Their hostility has kept the department embroiled in controversy and expensive lawsuits for years after the crowds disperse.
Most recently, Chicago police have come under fire for their responses to various demonstrations and direct actions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Arielle Rebekah, a spokesperson for the anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace, said activists have observed a clear pattern of police targeting specific Black and Palestinian activists for harassment and arrest.
“It is very obviously targeted, because the people they are picking out are the people who are known protest organizers in Chicago. It is consistent, and too consistent to be accidental,” Rebekah said.
Mogul pointed out that Chicago has a long and “ugly history” of violent police crackdowns on large demonstrations that end in mass arrests in violation of the First Amendment.
“That includes in 2003 with the anti-Iraq war protests, the demonstrations in response to the NATO summit in 2012, the egregious violence and ‘kettling’ that we saw at some of the protests in support of Black lives in the summer of 2020,” Mogul said. “And most recently, we are seeing violence at protests gathering in response to the war on Gaza or the demands for a ceasefire, and in response to outrage over the police killing of Dexter Reed.”
Dexter Reed, a 26-year-old Black man, was shot 13 times and killed by police during a traffic stop on Chicago’s West Side in March. Medical examiners ruled the case a homicide. Police say Reed shot first, but protests broke out in recent weeks following the release of body camera footage showing officers firing almost 100 rounds. Reed’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the police of using violent and militarized tactics.
The protests over Reed’s death follow multiple cycles of outrage over racist and deadly police violence in Chicago, where the city council recently agreed to pay $57 million to settle three lawsuits over a range of police misconduct, including an unauthorized car chase that left a 15-year-old with a traumatic brain injury and unable to walk. Efforts by the community to reform the Chicago Police Department were so contentious and unsuccessful that the Justice Department stepped in and announced a consent decree back in 2018. That decree mandates the police department must improve training and policies around “impartial policing,” “use of force,” “crisis intervention,” and other areas under federal oversight.
Anger boiled over again during the summer of 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a nationwide uprising for racial justice.
On May 30, 2020, groups of Black and Brown youth who showed up to protest were trapped in downtown Chicago after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered bridges to be lifted and public transportation shut down. The Chicago Freedom School, which teaches community organizing primarily to Black and Brown youth, opened its doors so the protesters could gather in safety and coordinate rides home as a 9 p.m. emergency curfew approached.
Chicago Freedom School organizers also provided bottles of water, pizza and granola bars to the stranded youth, which prompted a raid by Chicago police along with city inspectors who penalized the school for running a commercialized kitchen without a business license. The school was temporarily shut down under a “cease and desist” order that was described as a deliberate attack on Black and Brown youth exercising their First Amendment rights.
As counsel for the People’s Law Office, Mogul and other attorneys filed suit against the city and the police department and the “cease and desist” order was rescinded as part of a settlement with the Chicago Freedom School. While the city reprimanded the officials who handed out the unlawful order, they were later promoted within the Chicago bureaucracy, according to local reports.
“They weren’t selling this food for money, so it was clearly pretextual and outrageous, a way to prevent and chill the Chicago Freedom School from supporting these young Black and Brown people protesting police violence,” Mogul said.
The Chicago Freedom School was far from the only controversy arising from the Chicago Police Department’s response to the 2020 protests. The use of pepper spray and indiscriminate mass arrests during the uprisings came under intense public scrutiny. A report by the Inspector General for Chicago found that the department’s crowd management policies increased the likelihood that cops would violate the constitutional rights of demonstrators.
Under fire for these alleged First Amendment violations, the Chicago Police Department is rolling out new protocols for policing mass events and protests ahead of the DNC, including a new standard for ordering crowds to disperse only if three or more individuals are involved in “disorderly conduct” that could lead to “substantial harm.”
Top Chicago police officials have said “rioting” will not be tolerated during the DNC next week, and the city reopened a defunct courtroom to handle an anticipated multitude of cases in the event of mass arrests during the convention.
Considering the track record of the Chicago police, it’s no surprise racial justice and police accountability are a major focus of the city’s vast activist scene. Mogul said people coming to Chicago to protest the DNC should know that movement lawyers are coordinating across multiple organizations — including the Movement Law Lab, Palestine Legal, the National Lawyers Guild, and others — to provide legal support for activists. Protesters can access legal support from those organizations by calling this hotline: 1 (872) 465 4244.
“I think people have a right to protest and should feel comfortable doing so,” Mogul said. “But they should be smart, be wise, go with other people, and make sure that people who are not at the protest know they are there.”
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