The Democratic National Convention this August is about more than politics. Sure, there’ll be talk about Mayor Richard M. Daley’s mastery of the family business. But Chicago police have another agenda: they’re training to erase the image they created 28 years ago. Back then, Americans watched grainy footage of helmeted cops beating antiwar demonstrators on Michigan Avenue. This time the police want to show that their culture has been radically reformed – that they’re better educated and more open-minded. Of course, 1996 isn’t 1968; there’s no searing issue like Vietnam. The cops, though, still face problems. Plenty of latter-day activists – whether obsessed with abortion or AIDS funding – know that provoking officers would yield plenty of ink. Even more troubling is the risk of Oklahoma City-style terrorism.
Say this for the cops – they don’t hide their bloody linen. Chicago police, who must provide the bulk of protection at the convention, allowed NEWSWEEK to join closed-door training and intelligence sessions for the officers who will be on the front lines. The course opens with ““Chicago 1968,’’ an edgy PBS documentary that shows officers clubbing kids. It’s strong stuff, but then so is the faded list of 198 injured officers that hangs in the classroom. Most cops say their side of ‘68 has never been told. Ill-trained and poorly equipped, they had done their best to contain arson and rioting after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April of that year, only to be slammed by city hall for going soft on angry blacks. At the convention, many officers were still smarting from the slight. There, skirmishes with protesters were as much about class warfare as about Vietnam: a predominantly blue-collar force heavy with patronage hires, legacies and military veterans collided with children of privilege, many of whom had ducked the draft. Some sprayed the cops’ faces with oven cleaner and pelted them with bottles and bricks. ““There was so much fear,’’ recalls Officer Tom Baroni, 53. ““I thought, “God, am I going to survive this?’’'
The cops who’ll work the ‘96 convention aren’t as likely to lose their cool. Barely 7 percent of today’s officers were on the job in ‘68. They’re a less remote force, more like Chicago itself: 25 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic and 18 percent female; 61 percent have attended college or earned degrees. But they’re not accustomed to dealing with terrorism. Federal agencies, NEWSWEEK has learned, are pumping British, French and former Soviet-bloc spy networks for word of any international plots. To be safe, organizers at the United Center convention hall will place the stage away from sides of the building that might be vulnerable to truck bombs. Another fear is that terrorists could strike elsewhere in Chicago, away from the heavily policed facility.
Protesters present a different challenge. The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which has disrupted two preconvention events, threatens stronger tactics in August. And police are ready for attempts to block expressways. There are so many activists planning protests in the city that they’re now comparing notes on a World Wide Web home page.
The cops know they’re a volatile part of the mix. ““We have a reputation as thugs in uniform,’’ Sgt. Jim Devereaux frankly tells one training class. An exasperated voice from the back of the room asks, ““Are we concierges or cops?’’ The answer, it turns out, is both. ““If they want to sleep in a park, let them,’’ instructor Jim Marino tells the group. But, Devereaux adds, ““we will not stand around and witness crimes.’’
The heaviest responsibility falls on 2,500 select members of tactical teams and special units. The department will reinforce its front lines with 25 Immediate Reactionary Forces, flying squads of 10 officers each that can swoop down on disturbances. Deeper reserves can come from the rest of the 13,200-member force. Heavy gear, from riot shields to baby-blue biohazard suits, will be stowed in roving police-equipment vans. Given what happened in ‘68, Chicago police can’t afford any near misses. But anyone – protester or terrorist – who plays the cops for patsies may be making a mistake. At their training academy, recruits eat lunch near a statue that commemorates seven officers killed by an anarchist’s bomb during the Haymarket Square riot of 1886. Reversing an image formed in 1968 is important. But to the cops, it isn’t worth dying for.
