Chicago – The the whole world was watchingbut this time he liked what he saw.
No police clubbing the protesters. No fistfights on the convention floor. There are no extensive campgrounds surrounding Grant Park.
At the end, a four-day city congress was held mostly peaceful demonstrations outside the arena. And inside, the convention floor will be remembered more Lil Jon’s brilliant surprise appearance rather than political disorder.
Chicago held a sometimes forgotten convention in 1996 and it went off without a hitch. For months yet, many experts have predicted This year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago will be a scene from the city’s 1968 Vietnam-era convention, with days of chaos, violence and bloody police clashes with crowds.
Instead, the more than 50,000 visitors who flocked to the city enjoyed sunny skies, a sparkling lakefront and a clean and safe downtown.
“They said, ‘Is Chicago ready?’ Is Chicago ready for this convention?’ We’ve heard it all. Chicagoans have heard it all,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference Friday.
Eventually, Johnson said, “They saw our people and fell in love with them. DNC or no DNC, it’s still Chicago. All the beauty on display this week is beauty that is part of who we are.”
Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket a month earlier caused an increase in enthusiasmmeans more visitors flock to the City of Big Shoulders, packing Wrigley Field, restaurants and events around town.
Also this week is Ohio Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee He declared Chicago a “war zone,” According to Chicago police, crime in the city is down compared to the same period last year.
The mass outages did not brighten the week, even at a tense political moment when pro-Palestinian protesters demanded that the Democratic Party put more pressure on Israel to end its war with Gaza and that the United States stop supplying Israel with weapons.
There were moments of opposition. A small contingent of “non-threat” delegates, who strongly criticized the administration’s actions in supporting Israel in the war in Gaza, expressed concern that the convention did not include a speaker to represent their interests. During Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday, at least one representative left and others turned their backs on the vice president.
“We finally got rid of the nightmares of 1968 … It’s an incredible legacy to leave here,” said Anne Caprara, chief of staff to Gov. JB Pritzker, who has been instrumental in planning the convention for more than two years. “It was completely put to bed. That was the reason for all the preparation and work that went into making sure that people felt heard ahead of time…philosophically creating the space, without causing violence.
Caprara said the convention went smoothly largely because of the lack of sparring between various organizing bodies, including the Chicago Police and the US Secret Service, as well as the Chicago Home Ownership Committee and the Democratic National Committee.
“The host committee and [convention committee] had a great relationship; they worked really well together, and that’s not often the case,” Caprara said. “There was a lot of synergy between what the Biden and then Harris people wanted and needed… It was a very good thing in an often contentious relationship. .”
A total of 74 arrests were made in connection with the convention during the week, according to Chicago police. Larry Snelling said it was primarily about the protests. Four people said they went to the hospital mainly for drug problems, although one complained of pain in a finger and another in a knee.
Snelling said several of the injured officers refused medical attention because they did not want to leave their fellow officers. He also said the fact that there were so few injuries is evidence that the officers have been trained for more than a year to respect First Amendment rights and exercise restraint in the face of protests.
Police endured people getting in their faces, yelling and swearing at them, he said, “And they kept their cool the whole time.”
“It just goes to show the work that’s going on in the districts and in our city, and other officials are going down to protect people’s First Amendment rights” and the city as a whole, Snelling said. “Our city was on display. And it was on display for the world to see, and I guarantee the world was watching. However, we showed once again that this is not 1968.”