According to permit applications ahead of the Democratic Nation Convention set to take place in late August in Chicago, at least eight different groups have applied to demonstrate during the event according to an NBC 5 Investigates Freedom of Information Act request.
According to NBC 5, among those who sought permits through CDOT include:
Liz Rathburn with the Students for a Democratic Society at UIC said the number could be high, “I don’t think it is unreasonable to say 40,000 or even 50,000 people will be outside of the DNC.”
Many are warning that the city is unprepared and hopes to avoid the bad optics of the 1968 DNC convention that saw then-Mayor Richard J. Daley ring the convention site with barbed wire and ultimately call in the National Guard to quell the violence.
In June, Chicago’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report warning that the city and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) are unprepared for the protestors.
Chicago is already facing a crisis with a major shortage of police officers.
At a public forum with the Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said, “What we’re doing right now is making the best with the number of officers that we have.”
Snelling added, “We are down. We’re down close to 2,000 officers.”
The OIG’s latest was a response to the recent “Chicago Police Department’s Preparedness for Mass Gatherings,” which was a critical review of the department’s botched response to the George Floyd protests and riots in 2020.
The new report warns that while there have been some improvements since 2020, major concerns remain.
Radical pro-Hamas protestors have already promised to disrupt the gathering.
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