Days of Rage
It was adopted by the council, prompted by the effects of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity in August and reflecting Jacobs's advocacy of direct action as political strategy.
[6] On October 6, 1969, the statue commemorating the policemen killed in the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago was blown up by a group including William Ayers.
No more than 300 were left willing to face the enormous gathering of police a second time around[11] on the evening of Wednesday, October 8, 1969, in Chicago's Lincoln Park, and perhaps half of them were members of Weatherman collectives from around the country.
[12] Late in the evening, Jacobs stood on the pedestal of the bombed Haymarket policemen's statue and declared: "We'll probably lose people today ... We don't really have to win here ... just the fact that we are willing to fight the police is a political victory.
John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, David Gilbert and others led a charge south through the city toward the Drake Hotel and the exceptionally affluent Gold Coast neighborhood, smashing windows in automobiles and buildings as they went.
Before any attempt to gain entrance to the hotel could be made, an unmarked car pulled up to the curb and began firing revolvers into the group of about fifteen unarmed rioters.
[18] The largest event of the Days of Rage occurred on October 10, when RYM II led an interracial march of 2,000 people through a Spanish-speaking part of Chicago.
About 300 protesters marched swiftly through The Loop, Chicago's main business district, watched over by a double-line of heavily armed police.
Led by Jacobs and other Weathermen members, the protesters suddenly broke through the police lines and rampaged through the Loop, smashing windows of cars and stores.
The Days of Rage cost Chicago and the state of Illinois about $183,000 ($100,000 for National Guard payroll, $35,000 in damages, and $20,000 for one injured citizen's medical expenses).
[1] Jones and other Weathermen failed to appear for their March 1970 court date to face charges of "crossing state lines to foment a riot and conspiring to do so".
