Chicago’s Days of Rage and the 2024 DNC

By Pat Hickey

August 14th, 2024

In August of 1968, I was working second shift at the old Cracker Jack factory in Chicago’s Clearing industrial district south of Midway Airport. Therefore, I missed the opportunity to work with a cousin at Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue and to witness the Democratic National Convention. The following year, I worked at the home of the greatest and most disciplined symphony orchestra in the world for the next five years as a janitor, while in high school and through my years at Loyola University.

I got all of my media news about the ’68 Convention from the Daily News, The American and The Southtown Economist.  The Chicago Tribune was anathema in my union stamped home and thus, too, my infant soul. The family and my infant soul were on the money even then, but that was long before WOKE contaminated every news outlet in Chicago and elsewhere. I missed the ’68 Convention, as it has become lionized, but I eye-witnessed the Days of Rage, The Sly Stone No Show Riots, and much less-known acts of urban terror in and around Orchestra Hall.

I learned about what went on at the ’68 Convention from my family and friends who witnessed the events in Grant Park and into Old Town. The word activist became synonymous with “privileged asshole with a millionaire daddy and a phalanx of lawyers.”  I still hold that blue collar point of view. Abby Hoffman, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, Bill Ayers, and the rest suffered no consequences for their actions. Guys from my neighborhood like Bill Richardson, Jimmy Finn, Marty Tully, George Svectovich and Pat Thomas went to Vietnam. Some died in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Mike Kelly deployed to Vietnam on Good Friday 1969 and was killed on Easter Sunday. Charlie Miller lost his toes. Jim Furlong lost his right leg and the use of his right arm kicking a Viet Cong rocket-propelled grenade away from his company commander.

Vietnam veterans were never welcomed home in any way, shape or form until 1986.  At the same time, Bill Ayers and his odious wife robbed banks, blew up a judge’s home in New York, killed cops in San Francisco and landed sinecures at Northwestern University and U of I at Chicago.

Activists get to create disorder, laugh, and repeat. Old Mayor Daley once remarked “The Police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.”  An activist gets others to stand up to the reaction to created disorder. An activist gets others to take the “wood shampoo” from a cop but gets the Sun Times interview and a slobberingly gushing twenty-minute tribute on public television. The activist usually has a retained attorney at his elbow and beck and call.

I have known activists (Pro-Life, Anti-Death Penalty, Wrongful Convictions, Police Torture and even a goofy Say-No- Sex woman) and not one of them was anything more than a serial narcissist and cold-eyed opportunist.   The worst of them, in my estimation, were teachers using the classroom as a bully pulpit. One woman “activist” published a collection of her students’ essays on remaining chaste (a good thing) and made a small fortune without a centime going to the writers of the essays, nor to the Catholic high school that gave this grifter a contract. Activists are users and very rarely doers.

As with the ’68 Convention, I shall be nowhere near the action. The Democratic Convention will be a schizophrenic affair. The media will push the nonsensical JOY of Kamala and Tampon Tim and revel in the blood on the streets tapped by the activists.

Watch for these activists to emerge from the mists of history to get others whacked on the noggin at the upcoming DNC from August 19 through August 22, when Kamala Harris and Tim Walz oversee the “Joy” and Pro-Hamas street violence

  • Jesse Sharkey
  • Kevin Clark
  • Andy Thayer.

One home-grown pro-Palestinian member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Jesse Sharkey, became the leader of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).  The Barney Google of Terror, Bill Ayers, taught generations of radical Marxist members of CTU. Jesse Sharkey gets along well with Old Bill.

Jesse Sharkey was the puppet-master behind the late Karen Lewis and stepped up upon her death to drive Chicago Public Education deep into the loam of Illinois. He made oodles of cash and retained his Marxist street cred by condemning Israel and the United States at every given opportunity. Jesse Sharkey will whisper into the waxed-up ears of Brandon Johnson and suggest, suggest, mind you, that some police force upon the demonstrator should be applied. What is an omelet without a few dozen busted eggs?

Jesse Sharkey is an activist’s activist and an insolated louse.

But, the absolute worst of the breed is Kevin Clark, of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and founder of Catholic School Girls Against The War, who shepherded a naïve girl from Peoria into the path of an Israel Defense Force (IDF) bulldozer in Gaza – Rachel Corrie.

Kevin Clark taught at a suburban Catholic high school, before becoming a full-time activist. In 2008, when Mayor Daley and Cardinal George greeted George W. Bush at O’Hare International, Kevin Clark put together a team of dim bulbs to toss fake blood on Easter Mass-goers. Clark sat in the back pew as a “witness.”   ISM no doubt paid for the Commie lawyers who negotiated the dumb kids out of the hoosegow. Richie Daley always played nice when confronted by Commie lawyers.

Speaking of Commie lawyers, our next profiled activist is none other than Chicago’s own, Andy Thayer.

Andy Thayer has a job with Marxist lawyers Loevy & Loevy. Jon Loevy is the son of long-time Marxist lawyer Arthur Loevy, of the Amalgamated Garment and Textile Workers with the deep pockets of Amalgamated Bank and Trust.  Jon Loevy made millions of dollars taking Richard M. Daley, the Chicago Police Department and City of Chicago, not to court but to the bank.  Richie Daley rolled over every time a Marxist, or Cadillac Commie like G. Flint Taylor walked past City Hall. The firm Loevy & Loevy is a sacred cow for criminals guilty or not and is worshipped by the Chicago News Media.

Andy Thayer has a get-out-of-jail-free card that even works around the globe.  He was arrested in Putin’s Russia on two occasions and got out with no problem.  Remember, Richard M. Daley has had business in Moscow from the time Jon Loevy first sued the City of Chicago. My bilious antipathy for protected miscreants knows no bounds.  I expect that the Friday conclusion will be especially violent and that Chicago’s Loop will be all but shut down.

Andy Thayer’s CV on Loevy & Loevy does small justice to his place in this, my Chicago triumvirate of activists.  Do avail yourself of the links provided that are most telling of each culprit.

So, there you have it—a modest pantheon of activists to keep an eye on while watching (the whole world will be watching) the 2024 Democratic Convention, where Joy and bloodshed will catch the eyes of the nation.  Stay home, lest you slip on the blood.

-30-

Born November 8, 1952 in Englewood Hospital, Chicago Illinois, Pat Hickey attended Chicago Catholic grammar and high schools, received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Loyola University in 1974, began teaching English and coaching sports at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL in 1975, married Mary Cleary in 1983, received a Master of Arts in English Literature from Loyola in 1987, taught at La Lumiere School in Indiana from 1988-1994, took a position as Director of Development with Bishop Noll

 Institute in Hammond, IN and then Leo High School in Chicago in 1996.  His wife Mary died in 1998 and Hickey returned with his three children to Chicago’s south side. From 1998 until 2019, it became obvious that Illinois and Chicago turned like Stilton cheese on a humid countertop. In that time, he wrote a couple of books and many columns for Irish American News. When the kids became independent and vital adults, he moved to Michigan City, Indiana, Hickey substitute teaches K-12 for Westville, Indiana schools and works as a tour guide/deckhand on the Emita II tour boat. He walks to the Michigan City Lighthouse every chance he gets.

Comments 41

  2. Nice intro to the Chicago papers’ further coronation of Harris, the head of Defund the Police and Let them Out of Jail. Tampon Tim will make a nice jester.

  3. Interesting. I too was absent, so to speak, for the 1968 Democratic Convention as I was in Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago. We didn’t get much news during Boot Camp, so we missed all of the excitement in the city as the Navy kept us pretty busy. What was interesting is we had to share the Great Lakes facilities with the U.S. Army. They moved the army in (National Guard as well as regular army) to be available to quickly deploy to Chicago if needed. We had to move from our relatively new barracks to the old WWII barracks that were still there at the time. They were not very comfortable but the navy wasn’t too concerned about the comfort of recruits. We had to share the mess hall with the army as well which meant longer lines and longer marches to get there. I didn’t mind this much as it was somewhat a welcome diversion from the rigors of boot camp. The army was actually nice to interact with compared to our company commander. After a few weeks the army moved out and things went back to normal for us and we learned about the activities surrounding the convention later.

  5. here is my daily play list for the DNC starting on Monday:
    Monday-“kickin’ out the jams” by MC5 the unofficial 68 DNC band
    Tuesday-“peace frog” The doors
    Wednesday- “someday” CTA
    Thursday- “Chicago” CSNY live version -this one is for Mayor Daley

    History does repeat itself ’68=’24

  6. Well done Mr Hickey. “The whole world is watching” redux starts Monday. Has 56 years gone by so swiftly? Thanks for reminding us of the leftist radical puppet masters that sent the innocent fools into the fray to get their pine wood shampoos and Bologna sammich. Connected lawyers at their arm while the kids learn a tough lesson. Roll forward to the likes of (Saint) George Floyd. Gov Nero (Tampon Tim) let his city BURN BABY BURN and vapid Kackles raises bail money for these poor misunderstood rioters. Yes the Whole World is Watching. Putin and Kim and Xi and the pro Palestinian leaders in the Middle East. And THEY are licking their chops.

  8. A friend and I were sight-seeing “near the action” that day but guessed what was coming and made a timely skedaddle back to Glen Ellyn and Wheaton. (He remained on the left, later moved to Minnesota, where Walz’ part-time warrior faction staged unchecked mostly peaceful arson protests, yet we’ve somehow remained best friends.)

    Future Friend-of-Barack Bill Ayers was a Glen Ellyn neighbor of mine, but you actually knew so many of the dopey utopian, Marx-impaired lot, Pat. What an insightful account! They deserve your descriptions if not your eloquence.

    Those little aspiring Bolsheviks were anticipated 43 years earlier by the great American expatriate poet T. S. Eliot:

    “We are the hollow men 
    We are the stuffed men 
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when 
    We whisper together 
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass 
    Or rats’ feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar

    Shape without form, shade without colour. 
    Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

    Those who have crossed
    With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
    Remember us—if at all—not as lost 
    Violent souls, but only 
    As the hollow men”

    1. Thank you David. Real people put their lives on the line every day and without PR flacks and lawyers. The Hollow Men we will always have with us. Irish labor leader and 1916 martyr wrote about the phonies.

      Our masters all a godly crew,
      Whose hearts throb for the poor,
      Their sympathies assure us, too,
      If our demands were fewer.
      Most generous souls! But please observe,
      What they enjoy from birth
      Is all we ever had the nerve
      To ask, that is, the earth.

      The “labour fakir” full of guile,
      Base doctrine ever preaches,
      And whilst he bleeds the rank and file
      Tame moderation teaches.

  9. Pat,
    No worries. We have been advised by competent authorities…aka the police supt, that everything is well in hand, and all protests will be “peaceful,” aka, simple looting and burning, and a few busted heads….all for the nation to watch as Chicago descends into utter chaos – again! Take a look at what socialist “leaders” (simple figureheads) have done to California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and Illinois. If this tide doesn’t turn soon, we will be forever known as the PSRofA. The peoples’ socialist republic of America, with states being simple satellites of the iron hand. Let us pray this tide turns…..

    1. Was praying last night in Yorktown Virginia. Where my ancestors finished the job for all of us, in 1781. My earliest English immigrant ancestors, Page, Nelson (signor Thomas Nelson Jr), Read, Nicolas Martiau (ancestor to Geo. Washington) all resting, all present.

      Grace Episcopal Church built in 1725, survived the Battle of Yorktown only to earn the privilege of surviving again the American Civil War.

      Dead quiet there last night, no ambient noise, no change, for 240 years. Trust me sir, I prayed hard

  10. Harris is a shoo-in in Chicago and Illinois. Hopefully things will get sufficiently out of hand during the convention that history will repeat–a once loser in an earlier election (RMN-1960, DJT 2020) will beat the far left VP (HHH, Kamala) of a President who opted out (LBJ, Biden) of running. What goes around comes around.

  11. Thank you John Kass for giving us Pat Hickey and his, personal, history lessons on Chicago’s insiders in political garments.
    Thank you Pat Hickey for giving this detailed history, it is not widely known to anyone of our children, as to the beginnings and continuances of these undercover radicals who enjoy their games of politics down and dirty.
    With the nose counting of Chicago’s lessening population, now at numbers that reflect 1920, it is a sorry state that these radicals have brought along to kill this city with broad shoulders. But the loss of Chicago to the antics of degenerate pols is not going to influence the needs of people who don’t want them and show their disdain by using U-Haul to expedite their distrust.
    God bless our young people like John Kass and Pat Hickey whose attempts to illuminate this mell of a hess with their words. Thank you to you and yours, always.
    Tom

  12. The word activist became synonymous with “privileged asshole with a millionaire daddy and a phalanx of lawyers.” 110%

    They feel their own millionaire guilt yet make others pay it. They never seem to pay penance themselves for fear jeopardizing their own comfy lifestyle (and power?) into which they were born and are accustomed. They never had to work for it, or anything for that matter, and are clueless about actually working for a living.

    Curiously similar to manipulative, self-interested politicians.

  13. Thank you, Pat. Outstanding is just not a good enough description for this masterpiece! Though I was only 8 years old in 1968, I still remember my dad and my Uncle Rocky being so pissed off at CT Senator Abraham Ribicoff for deviating from his nominating speech at the podium and accusing the Chicago Police Department for using “Gestapo” tactics in their arrests of the protesters with Daley sitting right in front of him on the floor in the Illinois delegation on the floor of the International Amphitheatre. Probably because our neighbor a few doors down, a tough Irishman named Bill Walsh, was in the middle of the scrum on Michigan Ave. This could only have been written by a Chicagoan. Thanks again for doing the nation a solid and putting next week’s celebration of “ Joy” in its proper context.

  14. Hopefully no Chicago Police Officers take a beating for a Democrat that a Democrat so richly deserve. Let the bastards take the ass kicking they have earned. The media needs to martyr a “POC” to fire up the Democrat voters to the ballot box. They tried with the Dastardly Dexter shooting on the West Side a few months ago and failed. They’re now trying with the police shooting of the woman downstate very unsuccessfully. Events downstate don’t register with the Urbanites. The politically connected brass on The Chicago Police Department brass wants it’s own head to put on a spike to parade to its hordes and hopefully no Police Officer obliges. Yes, they’re all appointed by the Democrats to furthur the Democrat agenda. Don’t take the bait. The bosses are waiting to string you up. Crime has basically been legalized in Cook County so police need to follow the laws. If Rome needs to burn then let it burn.

  16. “Joy and bloodshed will catch the eyes of the nation..” HUH?? Dis you watch any of the RNC?? It had all the joy of a black mass, a solid week of conspiracy theories, anger, bitterness, and hyperbolic warnings about America and false claims of election fraud.

    1. I did watch the RNC (well, as much as the MSM would televise, which wasn’t much). They did talk about the stolen election, but the anger and bitterness you describe was not apparent to me. I saw exuberant, happy people talking about their plans to Make America Great Again. By contrast, I’m betting the theme of next week’s DNC will be “Death to America.”

      1. I’ll agree, Trump did try and stay magnanimous for a time, then diverted into his old playbook. Fast forward, now he sounds unbalanced. FYI I think “death’ is a a poor marketing strategy. Look for “alternative” and “future” as guiding themes. The GOP could have captured that narrative, they chose to go with Trump.

    2. Well, well, well…look who’s back: the cockroach in a gas station urinal, a.k.a. Tony Cesare. He has also crawled out under the fake name “Rigatony.” Now he is using Senor Grande again.
      Tony Cesare was a constant festering scab here until he banned many months ago. He truly is a pest.
      It gets worse…we exposed his attempt at identity theft. He claimed to be the proprietor of Tony’s Tap in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Tony Cesare actually posted that on his Facebook page.
      We have the screenshots. Tony Cesare took that lie down quickly after we lifted the rock he as hiding under.
      We called Tony’s Tap and spoke to Tony, the actual owner. They had never heard of Tony Cesare.
      John Kass…please exercise due diligence…squash this cockroach once and for all.
      For more laughs at Tony Cesare’s expense search his name at the Downers Grove patch. They still have his crap from more than 10 years ago.

      1. I’ve MISSED you Dave! Say, what happened to the “R?” FYI I remain fiercely proud of my Patch years, my POV brought me community respect, friends and a drip of influence, maybe a respected voice. I consider our Mayor (a great man) a friend. What have your character assignations brought you?? Still live in in a trailer park?? Never change buddy! Football season coming up, the Tap will be busy and you are welcome anytime!

  17. Pat, I checked out the links you provided and was surprised/disgusted that so many of these people have websites glorifying their disrespect for the rule of law. They wear their disrespect like badges of honor. From what I can see, they contribute NOTHING useful to society, instead championing chaos and anarchy. They’re EXTREMELY lucky to be living in this country, even as they seemingly hate — hate — everything it represents. If they tried that crap in Iran, Russia, China or even their beloved Palestine, they’d disappear and never be heard from again.

  19. Thank you Mr. Hickey. Thank you JK.

    I had the honor to work with Marty Tully for several years.

    Why to this day has the FBI failed us. They had the evidence of Dohrn planting at least one bomb, that killed and severely maimed people. Bombing government buildings and police stations, symbols of injustice to their believes. Robbing the armored car, executing the security officers and a police officer.

    How about the innocent people the Weather Underground, murdered, maimed, and the heart break they caused American families.

    They all belong in jail. i lost respect for President Obama when he called those two mutts Ayers and Dorhn his friends. No President Obama they are murderers, and they committed treason. I cannot forgive, they had the right to protest, what gave them the right to murder innocent Americans, only working like the rest of us.

    Why are they allowed to live their lives in freedom after all the devastation their actions caused?

    Sixty thousand Americans gave their lives for us in Vietnam. How many survived only to be spit on coming home, to suffer from Agent Orange poisoning like Marty Tully, to suffer post traumatic stress to death after coming home.

    It makes my blood boil to see these American traders placed on a pedestal by todays marxist media.

    PS
    also positive memories why the family never purchased the Trib. it must have been a southside thing.

    1. Patrick,

      Thank you for your service! Marty Tully is the American Badass! What a lovely, tough herois and generous man. Long-range recon Green Beret and CPD hero with one of the highest murder closing rates in department history.

  20. While I was probably the only one on the WFMT staff at the time who was not delighted with the chaos, there is much I did not know, but do now, thanks to Pat Hickey and John Kass.

    1. Mr. Robinson, You were a genuine voice that Winnetka Talking To Wilmette has sorely missed.
      As I recall, you are an authentic working man with the receipts that matter. God bless you for your service!

  21. Hey everyone. Look who is back. It’s Tony Cesare, alias Senor Grande. He is BACK! He just cannot stay away. For those who might be unaware of the back story of this troll, check out Mr. Pearling’s above summary. In other words Tony Cesare actually tried to commandeer the identity of another. Why? Who knows. So be careful before you interact with this unethical douchebag.

    1. Rude! And I’ve MISSED you so much! What’s to be said for a feeble old white dude lobbing personal insults over social media?? Unnecessary, you humiliate yourself. But you are used to that, aren’t you?? I’ll be here all election, try the veal!

  24. Want to talk about “conspiracy theories” and “false claims of election fraud”? According to Pew Research, the 2020 election had the highest turnout (66% of registered voters went to the polls) since the 1990 election. According to Statista, there were 168 million registered voters in 2020. Biden received >81 million votes, Trump >74 million, Libertarian and other candidates approx. 2.6 million, for a total of 158,146,298 votes cast, which would indicate a turnout of 94.05% (!). The average percentage of voter turnout in Presidential elections 1980-2016 is just over 56%.

  25. Ah, 1968. I was a sophomore in high school.
    I remember 4 things about 1968.
    1) assassination of Martin Luther King.
    2) assassination of Bobby Kennedy.
    3) the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago.
    4) great music was being written and played.
    The Vietnam War wasn’t going very well for President Johnson. In fact, he had abdicated the war to his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. The Joint Chiefs hated it. And OUR soldiers were dying for a people who weren’t willing to help themselves. The war was unpopular there and also here at home and especially on the college campuses Peaceful protests were becoming less peaceful. Bill Ayers wasn’t happy with the non-violence of Students for a Democratic Society, so he and fellow zipperheads broke away to form the Weathermen Underground. Mayhem would follow.
    President Johnson actually wanted to have the convention in his home state of Texas, but Mayor Daley convinced him that not having it in Chicago would cost him all of the Illinois delegates.
    I was perched in front of the TV, watching Chicago cops beating the crap out of protesters in Grant Park. I saw speakers at the Convention denounce the brutality and watched as Mayor Daley was defiant and had several choice words.
    I don’t expect that the current cops can rise to that level of enthusiasm. BUT, if you are a third generation cop and reading this, ask Grandpa about the ’68 Convention. Expect to be amazed.

    1. Art: Great comment. You certainly know how to turn a phrase: “I don’t expect that the current cops can rise to that level of enthusiasm.” LOL.

  27. I am a Retired FF (Local 2)
    The Chicago FF’s Union Local 2 is going to march with the mob, ANTIFA, BLM and Hamas groups adding to the security issues downtown. They may not hold the belief systems of those groups, but they are adding to the problem and give those other groups a place to hide. Local 2 helped elect every viper at the DNC and now want to add to the chaos?!?
    Any police officer that gets hurt or worse, has Local 2 partially to blame.

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