DNC After Action Report: How Peaceful Was It?

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I had been looking forward to seeing what the protests were going to be like when I found out the Democratic National Convention was going to be held in Chicago, considering the history of the event in 1968. But the stakes were raised in the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks in Israel on October 7th and the pro-Hamas crowd in the U.S. had been promising to make their voices heard outside of the convention.

One thing I have noticed after months of covering anti-Israel/pro-Hamas protests is that it takes a major event like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Congress or a mass call to action to “surround” the White House in order to bring thousands of people out into the streets. Even then, the numbers don’t usually reach past 10,000. The last high-attended event would have been a march far-left groups organized earlier this year in the nation’s capital.

I was expecting a large crowd for the main “March on the DNC” but I was skeptical the protest would reach over 20,000 that they were predicting. Still, anything was possible and this would be their moment to make an impact.

The first day at Union Park I noticed that while there were a lot of people, it only numbered a couple thousand. Union Park is a fairly large park and while there were plenty of protesters by the stage, there was plenty of empty space. In my estimation, the average attendance over the week was no more than 10,000. While not a small number in general, it is far below was was predicted by organizers who were hoping for a large turnout so they can put more pressure on the Democrats.

Even with the smaller turnout on the first day, some within the crowd did manage to tear down the security fencing in at least three places. It had to take a large deployment of Chicago Police to push people out of the breaches and secure the area. The protest “marshals” attempted to move people away from the breaches before police showed up, which resulted in the more radical element in the crowd to get into arguments with the marshals.

While unsuccessful in reaching the United Center, it gave the next day’s protest a high bar to cause mass disruption. This time, the direct action was organized by a Black Bloc group called “Behind Enemy Lines.” This protest was billed as “Make It Great Like ‘68.” On Instagram, they even bragged about bruises from police batons the back-to-school fashion of choice to show their dedication to Gaza.

While comprised of more radical Antifa members, Tuesday’s protest was only a couple hundred people. But they were ready for a fight with police, and they lost miserably. The mob purposefully march right into a police line to start the fight, which devolved into the first wave of arrests. While they were outnumbered by police at the start, after the first fight, they were heavily outnumbered by what seemed like to be 50-1.

From there, the Antifa crowd marched around downtown while being kept to the sidewalk by police. Eventually, after refusing to negotiate with police, their gathering was declared to be an unlawful assembly. Agitators who refused to dispersed were arrested.

The hilarity of “Behind Enemy Lines” bragging on Instagram about wanting to fight with police before the chaotic event to now complaining how they were “brutalized” by police because of a fight they started is certainly not lost on me.

The rest of the week was mostly calm for there were still a couple thousand people still protesting outside the the DNC. This time, instead of allowing protesters to get to the fence, the park where they originally gained access to it was blocked off by hundreds of police.

It is something to be said that in order to have a “mostly peaceful” week, there needs to be thousands of police officers being able to do their job in order to keep far-leftists from acting out. Of course, the reason why officers were able to do their jobs is because the powerbrokers in the Democratic Party were in town and they are to be kept safe, average citizens be damned.

While last week was not a direct repeat of the the 1968 riots, it didn’t go off without a hitch either. In my opinion, it shows how little support the Gaza side of the debate has within the United States, at least to the point where people are willing to show up to protest, even in a non-violent one.

Regardless, this does not mean their movement is going away anytime soon. They can still mobilize enough people to create chaos. With the election around the corner and colleges starting their fall semester, it is to be sure they will continue to escalate their tactics.

Before the DNC, people would ask me if I considered the week in Chicago my Super Bowl. I’d usually say no, the DNC is the playoffs. Trump winning in November and the subsequent violent reaction from the far-left (again) is my Super Bowl.