The 1968 "riots" at the Democratic Convention in Chicago were absolutely ZERO anything like Jan 6 for the following reasons:
1. Neither the Yippies, nor the Hippies, or the Chicago 8, nor anyone else at that demonstration were "rioting." Only the Chicago cops rioted. The cops leveled unprovoked attacks against the demonstrators. The script is 100% flipped on Jan 6. The rioters leveled unprovoked attacks against the Capitol Police.
2. The demonstrators in Chicago absolutely did not seek to obstruct, interfere, or prevent any official federal government proceeding. The certification of the election results was an official proceeding. The Jan 6 rioters were trying to STOP that certification by disrupting it and they chanted for the cold-blooded murder of VP Mike Pence to achieve this goal. He would be unable to certify the election if he was murdered. But, any antiwar demonstrators merely crying out for their antiwar message to be HEARD at the DNC convention is NOT disrupting an "official Government proceeding." No one was trying to stop, block, obstruct, or prevent the nominating process. No attempts were made by an angry mob to break into the International Amphitheatre, or to terrify the participants into stopping what they were doing. But that is precisely what the Jan 6 rioters did. They swarmed the Capitol, broke the windows, climbed through those windows, opened the locked doors from the inside, ran to the House chamber, and then tried to stop the certification process by force. And they DID stop the certification process! They literally did. For HOURS! Nothing that happened, either inside, nor outside the International Amphitheatre in Chicago obstructed nor even delayed the Democratic Party's nomination of Humphrey for President. That wasn't the goal.
3. You are also incorrect about the rioters only "bringing bear spray." It's now very apparent you paid no attention to the trials and convictions in court of members of The Proud Boys, The Boogaloo Boys, The Oath Keepers, The 6-Percenters, and the many other far-right radical groups who descended upon the Capitol. They brought (among other semi-lethal weapons like clubs, bats, and sharpened poles): bombs (two were planted) and the bomber has still never been identified; a Glock 19 pistol, a 9 millimeter pistol, a Tavor X95 assault rifle with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a Taurus G2c 9mm handgun and a full 12-round magazine; two loaded handguns; an entire truck parked at the Capitol, which contained what police discovered to be a, quote, "small armory" of loaded handguns, loaded rifles, a loaded shotgun, a crossbow with bolts, several machetes, stun guns, and 11 mason jars containing a flammable liquid, with a hole punched in the top of each jar; and of course, there was also a gallows erected with a noose hanging from it, which they fully intended to drag Mike Pence to and hang him for "treason." And we know all this because it came out in testimony in more than one court case. It is a matter of judicial record. It was also revealed that the only reason the Jan 6 rioters didn't break out all this heavy artillery that they brought and start shooting is because Proud Boy leaders were monitoring Trump's tweets and waiting for Trump to "pull the trigger." i.e. officially declare martial law and "deputize" the Proud Boys, and the other far-right militias to legally perform the acts of murder and violence in "defense" of the USA. And, let's be 100% clear that this list of weapons above is JUST the weapons right outside the Capitol building. What also came out in the trial of the Oath Keeper, Thomas Caldwell, was that, outside the Capitol grounds, quote: "our Quick Response Team with the heavy weapons is standing by, to quickly load them and ferry them across the river to our waiting arms." Grasping the depth of this situation now? Needless to say, you and I know that no one in 1968 brought large capacity assault rifles and bombs with them to the DNC convention. When you say "it's incredible that the claim was 'overthrow of the US government' with bear spray," that would be incredible, if it were true...but it isn't true... because THAT's not what they were going to use to perform the overthrow. What they were going to use to do it was that "small armory" of lethal weapons they brought, waiting in nearby trucks, and the only reason they didn't, is because Trump failed to "declare martial law." We do not KNOW the reason why Trump failed to declare "martial law" as, it is reported, Roger Stone was frantically URGING Trump to do. Trump never got to appear in Court to be forced to answer that question. Maybe, Trump was just chicken. Maybe he was hoping against hope that the rioters would achieve the goal without "Martial Law" being declared so that Trump could always claim his hands were clean. Maybe he was just a spoiled, baby, brat who only wanted the horrendous spectacle to occur on TV to satisfy his overinflated ego, but he never really expected any of this cockamamie plan to actually work, but if he had to go out, he was gonna go out with a bang. Who knows? Who even cares anymore? Trump is back in power, all semblance of right and wrong, and justice and injustice, is dead, the Supreme Court is lost, and there is nothing more left for any of us to do but absorb and endure year after year of increasingly escalating hate and the destruction of our rights.
NONE of which, is what anyone protesting the Vietnam war sought to do. To equate what Yippies and Hippies did and stood for with this Jan 6 mob, is factually incorrect at best...and profoundly insulting at worst.
Recommended Reading: My Life As A Radical Lawyer by William Kunstler. As I'm sure you must know, he defended the Chicago 8. If you want to understand the stark differences between these two events, start there. And then when you're done with that, watch videos of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack hearings. They're all on Youtube. (for now! In the future, who knows!?!) If by then, you can't see the night and day differences, there is nothing else that can be said about this. I just could not see myself reading what you just wrote and allowing it to stand, unchallenged. For my own sanity, I had to respond. Hopefully, I will never need to speak on this topic again. I don't want to. It's all so pointless to even try to communicate anything like this, in a nation where justice is dead.
Trump is saving the Whales
