[5][6] During the evening of August 28, 1968, with the police riot occurring on Michigan Avenue in front of the Democratic party's convention headquarters and the Conrad Hilton hotel, television networks broadcast live as the anti-war protesters began the now-iconic chant: "The whole world is watching".

In early 1968, the National Mobilization Committee opened a Chicago office directed by Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden, who were leading political organizers at the time and former leaders of Students for a Democratic Society.

David Dellinger, MOBE chairman, believed that "the tendency to intensify militancy without organizing wide political support [was] self-defeating.

MOBE also planned to have workshops and movement centers distributed in 10 parks throughout the city, many in predominantly black areas, to allow demonstrators and participating groups to follow their particular focuses.

Its members, known as "Yippies" politicized hippie ideology and used street theater and other tactics to critique the culture of the United States and induce change.

In the end, an agreement was made on staging, electricity, police presence, bathrooms, and other necessities for running a music festival.

[citation needed] One of the Yippies' main tactics was to use street theatre to create an experience that drew the attention of mainstream America.

[citation needed] On a Wednesday night, networks moved their coverage away from the Amphitheater where the delegates were voting on the nomination, to a "pitched battle" in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel.

[15] Mayor Daley, citing intelligence reports of potential violence, put the 12,000 members of the Chicago Police Department on twelve-hour shifts, while the U.S. Army placed 6,000 troops in position to protect the city during the convention[7]: 2 [16] and nearly 6,000 members of the National Guard were sent to the city,[17] with an additional 5,000 National Guard on alert, bolstered by up to 1,000 FBI and military intelligence officers,[18] and 1,000 Secret Service agents.

While maintaining a public image of total enforcement of all city, state, and federal laws, the Narcotics division was quietly reassigned to regular fieldwork, curtailing anti-drug operations during the DNC.

[citation needed] In a last-ditch effort, MOBE filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking it to force Chicago to issue permits for a rally in Soldier Field or Grant Park.

Judge Lynch, Daley's former law partner, heard the case, and summarily dismissed the request,[23] citing that the city could deny permits on the basis of protecting "public comfort, convenience, and welfare".

Dean Johnson, age 17, and another boy were stopped on the sidewalk by the officers for a curfew violation early on the morning of Thursday, August 22.

[29] While 75 policemen and 4 police cars barred any reentrance to Lincoln Park,[29] SDS leaders organized several hundred protesters to march through the streets chanting things such as "Peace Now".

Eleven people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, and several police vehicles were stoned before the crowd dispersed into the normal Saturday nightlife.

When the concession stand owner insisted that Yippie stop using his electrical outlets to run the amplification equipment, confusion ensued.

[citation needed] On Monday, August 26, demonstrators climbed on the General John Logan Memorial statue, leading to violent skirmishes with police in Grant Park.

[16] In the early morning hours of August 28, 5,000 protesters had congregated in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel, which served as the convention headquarters, and across the street in Grant Park.

[33] Donning battle gear, the guardsmen proceeded to Michigan Avenue and positioned themselves between the Conrad Hilton hotel and the protesters in Grant Park.

[33] By this time, protesters were joined on 28 August by the Poor People's Campaign, now led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Ralph Abernathy.

[1] The police violence extended to encompass protesters, bystanders, reporters and photographers, while tear gas reached Hubert Humphrey in his hotel suite.

[5] At the convention, several Democratic delegates made statements against Mayor Daley and the CPD, such as Senator Abraham Ribicoff who, speaking from the podium, denounced the use of "Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago" in his speech nominating George McGovern.

[35] Inside the convention, journalists such as Mike Wallace and Dan Rather were roughed up by security; both these events were broadcast live on television.

[7]: 3  Within days, the Daley administration issued the first report, blaming the violence on "outside agitators", described as "revolutionaries" who came to Chicago "for the avowed purpose of a hostile confrontation with law enforcement".

[39] Although the precise number of injured protesters is unknown, Dr. Quentin Young of the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) stated that most of the approximately 500 people treated in the streets suffered from minor injuries and the effects of tear gas.

[6][41] A Chicago lawyer, Daniel Walker, headed the team of over 200 members, who interviewed more than 1,400 witnesses and studied FBI reports and film of the confrontations.

According to journalist Barbara Ehrenreich: "In a rare moment of collective courage, the editors of all the nation's major newspapers telegrammed a strong protest to Mayor Daley."

[45] On March 20, 1969, several months after the convention (and after a new more conservative president, Richard Nixon was in office),[46] a federal grand jury announced the indictments of eight demonstrators—Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner (plus Bobby Seale who was tried separately)—and eight police officers.

[48] The trial "illuminated the deepening schisms in a country torn apart by the Vietnam War, tectonic cultural shifts and attempts by the Nixon Administration to quash peaceful antiwar dissent and protest".

[51] Over 100 witnesses were called by the defense, including singers Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and Country Joe McDonald; comedian Dick Gregory; writers Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg; and activists Timothy Leary and Jesse Jackson.