IIn about 100 days, President Joe Biden will stand on a stage at Chicago’s United Center and accept his party’s presidential nomination. Organizers of this year’s Democratic National Convention hope that America will focus its attention at that moment on Biden’s words and the applause and enthusiasm of the crowd in the arena.
But many Democrats fear that voters’ attention will, at best, be divided between the heavily staged activities in the arena and the chaos unfolding just outside it.
More than 70 organizations have joined a coalition to “March on the DNC” when Biden and other members of his administration arrive in Chicago. Protest organizers predict it will be the largest Palestinian rights protest in Chicago history, with tens of thousands of people from across the country.
“Our goal is to send a message to Biden that he and his party were complicit in the genocide and that he has had the power since October to stop it by turning off the tap of money and weapons to Israel,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, president of the Network of the US Palestinian Community and spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC.
The group was denied permission to hold protest marches within blocks of the DNC. Organizers say they plan to march near the convention site with or without a permit and have sued the city alleging First Amendment violations. They say the city’s proposed alternative location – four miles away from the United Center – is unacceptable because it will mean they will not be seen or heard by convention attendees.
Protest leaders hope to build on the energy that has driven pro-Palestinian protests on dozens of college campuses in recent weeks, many of which are expected to largely subside once the spring semester ends. Columbia University and the University of Southern California are among the institutions that canceled graduation ceremonies due to the unrest. For protest leaders, the DNC will provide an even bigger national stage.
See more information: What America’s Student Photojournalists Saw in the Campus Protests
“We are very sensitive to the environment we live in here in Chicago,” DNC Chairman Minyon Moore, a longtime Democratic strategist, said at a press conference in April. “We know these protesters are coming. We are trying to create an environment where everyone is welcome. We protect First Amendment rights, but we also want to make sure people are excited about this convention.”
For Biden, how he handles the escalating protests could shape the political landscape as he works to present himself as leading a more orderly and competent federal government than former President Donald Trump. To help ensure the event runs smoothly, Biden added a trusted aide, Louisa Terrell, to the convention leadership team. Terrell began working for Biden two decades ago and most recently served as director of legislative affairs.
While the campus protests have drawn global attention, Biden advisers do not believe the Israel-Hamas conflict is a top priority for young voters this election. However, they are acutely aware that managing the consequences of these demonstrations remains crucial to maintaining the support of young people and American Muslims.
“What Biden did to allow this to happen is inexcusable and unforgivable,” says Abudayyeh. “And none of us in the Palestinian and Arab community in this country will ever forgive him or his party… There is nothing else that comes out of this President’s mouth that would be of interest to anyone in my community.”
Whether that anger will still burn as brightly four months from now is an open question. Biden officials have been working for months to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. And Biden just announced that he would withhold certain weapons from Israel due to concerns that the Israelis might use them in Rafah, where more than a million civilians are sheltering. However, protest organizers predict that frustration with Biden will not abate over the summer, after his months of support for a military campaign in which more than 30,000 people died in Gaza.
Protesters have attended party conventions for decades and are also expected to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July. However, some Republicans predict the DNC protests will be much more intense and more politically damaging. Montana Sen. Steve Daines, who heads the National Republican Senate Committee, told a group of reporters last week that he thinks pro-Palestine protests could be a “big problem for Democrats in August in Chicago.”
For decades, every Democratic and Republican political convention has been declared a “special national security event” by the Department of Homeland Security. This designation puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating security planning with the FBI, FEMA, Chicago police and other federal, state and local agencies. In March, Congress allocated $75 million to both the DNC and RNC for security.
DNC organizers are focused on protecting the area around McCormick Place, the convention center along the Lake Michigan shore where official party meetings will be held, and around the United Center, the Bulls and Blackhawks arena and the location of most of the event. evening procedures that will attract the largest audience. The exact boundaries of the security perimeter for these sites will be announced in late July, said a person familiar with the planning, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.
In Chicago, security training began last year to prepare for several different scenarios, including preparations for “civil disturbances” and how to quickly share information during an emergency, according to a statement provided by the Secret Service’s Chicago field office. By the time the Democratic convention begins in August, law enforcement agencies will have conducted several “tabletop” exercises for potential emergencies and led security forces through 400 hours of training, according to the Secret Service.
Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said in March that Chicago police “will protect all those who exercise their First Amendment rights” in and around the convention. “What we will not tolerate is criminal activity,” he added. “Violence and vandalism will not be tolerated.”
Last month, when pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the road to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, police cleared the protesters from the road within 90 minutes. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker later told CNN that the action showed Chicago police were ready for protests around the convention in August.
The looming clash between pro-Palestinian protesters and authorities at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago has drawn comparisons to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, where a violent police crackdown on anti-Vietnam War protesters gained national attention and hurt the party’s candidate, Hubert. Humphrey.
See more information: ‘Violence was inevitable’: How seven key players remember the chaos of protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
“We wanted to stop the war, and we thought the best way to do that was to create as much trouble for the Democrats as possible,” said Michael Kazin, who participated in the 1968 DNC protest as a member of Students for a Democratic Society. , recently remembered for TIME. “I think we managed to stop a lot of middle-of-the-road Americans from voting Democrat.” Later that year, Republican Richard Nixon won the White House, further intensified US involvement in Vietnam and began the selective service project.
Kazin, now a history professor at Georgetown University and author of “What It Took to Win: A History of the Democrat Party,” recalled that most Americans at the time sided with the police rather than the protesters, even though Footage of police brutality by the Chicago Police Department during the riot sparked outrage.
But the parallels for Democrats between 2024 and 1968 go beyond a robust protest movement and a convention in Chicago. Kazin points out how Humphrey ended up losing to Nixon amid internal anguish during the Vietnam War.
“Joe Biden is a liberal Democrat, like Hubert Humphrey, and he’s tried to do a lot of things domestically that people on the left generally like,” he says, “but at the same time they don’t like his foreign policy, which is similar to what was happening in the mid-60s.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
