Charlotte, North Carolina, the host city for the Democratic National Convention next year to renominate President Obama, has announced that it will not tolerate planned Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Rather, the city council enacted a series of restrictions on the allowed locations in which protesters can demonstrate and the outright ban on overnight stays.
New York Magazine reports: “The North Carolina city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any chances, and is already working to pass an ordinance that would make occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment. The fact that it would knock out the city's current overnight demonstrators is an added bonus.”
The constitutionality of the ruling is already being challenged by the National Lawyers Guild, which has been providing the Occupy movement with free legal services and counsel.
Immediately, comparisons between this year and the ill-fated 1968 Democratic convention have begun to be made. In that year, anti-Vietnam War demonstrators descended on the city of Chicago during the Democratic nominating convention which was to replace President Lyndon Johnson, who had declined to run for a second full term in office.
Earlier in the year, Sen. Robert Kennedy had been assassinated, who was the favorite of the youthful protesters. His likely successor, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, was challenged by Sen. Edmund Muskie – neither of whom received the nomination.
The party bosses chose Hubert Humphrey to face former Vice President Richard Nixon in the fall, and violence soon broke out. What follows is a truly shameful moment in American history when police, protesters, journalist and politicians engaged in violent clashes:
The result of 1968 was the total reformation of the primary process to what we know today. The elimination of the “smoke filled rooms,” in which the party and not the voters selected the presidential nominees, was the primary goal.
Will we see similar unrest at next year’s convention? Most certainly hope not, but the possibility is quite real. Many who demand further radical electoral and economic reform may even see 1968-like violence as a vehicle for reform.
We hope the city of Charlotte reconsiders.
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