City snafu allows protest at Democratic Convention’s front gate — when whole world is watching
For now, an administrative judge’s ruling allows the Poor People’s Army to march Aug. 19 — during the Democratic National Convention — from Humboldt Park to the “public sidewalk in front of the United Center” on Madison Street, according to the permit application.
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The Poor People’s Army was granted a permit to march in August after the city failed to respond to its application within its own 10-day deadline.
After the debacle of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Chicago has worked hard to contain demonstrations and protests so they don’t upstage the scripted political theater of events — but the city has just stumbled in those efforts.
So far, city officials have taken a hard stance against activists seeking permits to demonstrate during the Democratic Convention this August, denying requested protest routes of three groups in the last month alone.
But due to a technicality, the city was forced on appeal Monday to allow one of those groups to march nearly up to the United Center’s front doors.
