Despite early reports predicting tens of thousands of protesters over the Israel-Hamas war at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, the real numbers were markedly less. But the protesters themselves remained “hopeful” their message will reach the politicians in attendance.
To kick things off on Monday, Union Park was taken over by the March on the DNC Coalition, but there were less than ten thousand people in attendance. (Early reports suggested there would be somewhere in the realm of four to five times that.) Come Wednesday evening, the same park — which is just a few blocks from the United Center, where primetime programming took place — saw the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine gather to once again call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Similar to Monday, protesters also wanted to see things taken one further if Vice President Kamala Harris gets elected president in November — specifically a change in policy.
“Foreign aid, taking a look at what’s going on here in our country and focusing on our own people in America, rather than funneling so much money to foreign affairs,” one Palestinian activist, who preferred not to give his name, told TheWrap.
Wednesday’s protest was significantly smaller than the one on Monday, with what appeared to be a crowd of around a thousand people.
Things remained peaceful, though Chicago police markedly kept a much tighter distance between themselves and the crowd. On Monday, TheWrap observed a cop in the distance texting at one point; by contrast, Wednesday saw a police helicopter hovering over the crowd, with large groups of police even stepping onto the field itself.
It’s unclear what caused this shift, though it’s worth noting that 56 protesters were arrested Tuesday night after refusing to disperse outside the Israeli consulate.
Even so, protester Tracy Richardson wasn’t phased by the police presence.
“No. I mean, I’ve done protests for years. There’s always cops,” Richardson told TheWrap. “I’m not afraid of cops. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
Richardson came to the convention from Berkeley, California, and didn’t appear concerned by the smaller-than-expected turnout either.
“It would be great if there were more. But I think this is good. This is a showing,” she said. “If you think about it, [I’m] one person standing here — the amount of people that are back in Berkeley that were saying, ‘So glad you’re going. I wish I could,’ was like 20 or 30 people.
“So I’m standing here with 30 people behind me,” she continued. “Imagine all of those people are standing here with 30 people behind them,” she continued, gesturing to the crowd. “It’s a lot bigger than what you see. It’s a huge movement.”
Richardson also wound up being one of the few protesters openly supporting a candidate at Wednesday’s protest by wearing a Harris 2024 baseball cap. Where one speaker at the protest said that they take issue with both parties on this issue, Richardson noted that she’d “absolutely” be voting for the VP come November, “no doubt about it.”
She was optimistic that the protesters have been heard over the last three days, and predicted the issue would come up during speeches at the United Center in the final nights of DNC programming.
“I think we’ll hear a lot more,” Richardson said. “Today we have Bill Clinton. I’m sure he’s going to say something about it. So I’m hopeful.”
Indeed, there remains one day left in the convention, and another March on the DNC is scheduled for Thursday ahead of Harris speaking as the Democratic nomination for president. It remains to be seen if it will draw the same crowd it did Monday.
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