lawn order

 1968.  The Democratic Convention held in Chicago

Anti-war demonstrators were expected to show up; police and some people from the National Guard were supposed to patrol, and keep the peace.

Instead, police went crazy and started attacking the crowd of people outside the convention hall.

A news announcer referred to the protesters as "the noisy but non-violent crowd."  He said the police "charged, suddenly, in all directions."

Walter Cronkite said this move by the police was "unprovoked."

       

Some people chanted, "The whole world is watching!"

        A judge later called the incident a "police riot."

The week after the convention, Richard Nixon visited Chicago and gave a speech.  He described his audience as "the real Chicago."  He said, "A record number of Chicagoans came out... they had taken to the streets, because they want a change in America, and they're gonna get it, by their votes, this November!" 

        I had just turned 10 years old, before that election.  I remember the oft-repeated phrase, "law-and-order" - sometimes it sounded like "lawn order"....

Hubert Humphrey (Vice President under Lyndon Johnson) - the Democrats' nominee for president in 1968; 

Edmund Muskie, the vice presidential nominee

Humphrey was born in South Dakota; his father owned a drugstore in Huron, S.D.

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