Mayor Daley Fights Back
Like Abbie Hoffman, Mayor Richard J. Daley acted as a kind of political theater director. When he allowed the police to attack the peaceful YIPPIES, he condoned any effort to remove protests at the convention. These kind of protests damaged his national reputation as a member of the Democratic party. He unleashed the force of Chicago police and the National Guard against the many peaceful and violent oppositions taking place that week in August of 1968.
However, Daley failed in his goal: both his and the city’s reputation suffered because the brutality of his forces on national media caused dramatic reactions from the American public. The resilience of the protesters and the backlash from the nation to the city’s violence endangered his power as the leader of Chicago politics. Altogether, the violence on the streets of Chicago had elements of theatricality because the Chicago leadership used excessive force.