The release of the film “The Trial of the Chicago 7” comes at a time when protests of different sorts fill the streets of the U.S.
Its filmmakers say that as the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police brutality sweep across the nation on the eve of a pivotal election, it would be easy to think the script changed to mirror the times. “The script didn’t change to mirror the times, the times changed to mirror the script,” Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter and director of “The Trial of the Chicago 7” said in a news release for the film. “Four years ago, the Republican candidate for president began rhapsodizing to cheering crowds about ‘the old days’ when they used to take protestors out on a stretcher. ‘America, Love It or Leave It’ was a slogan that came back in vogue. And just as Fred Hampton was killed by the police in the middle of the (Chicago 7) trial, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, and countless others are similarly tragically killed.”
Fred Hampton, leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was shot and killed while he slept after his home was raided by Chicago police in December of 1969.
In December of 1968, a government report was released that blamed Chicago police (“a minority of the 12,000-man force”) for the bloodshed that marred the Democratic National Convention of that summer.
“To be sure, demonstrators threw things at policemen and at police cars,” the Associated Press reported at the time, quoting the report. “But the weight of violence was overwhelming on the side of the police.”
Also in Times’ files, there’s a clipping from the New York Times, which published the text of a foreword and summary of the report, prepared by Daniel Walker for the President’s Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.
“The right to dissent is fundamental to democracy,” the report begins. “But the expression of that right has become one of the most serious problems in contemporary democratic government. That dilemma was dramatized in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention of 1968 — the dilemma of a city coping with the expression of dissent.”
The White House, the AP reported on Dec. 2, 1968, “was silent on its reaction to the report.”
Oswego native John T. Sullivan, who served as assistant state attorney general for the Watertown office from 2003 to 2007, had just graduated from college in 1968. He went on to a career in law and politics, leading local, state and national political hierarchies. He became the youngest county legislator ever elected in Oswego County to several visits to the White House and as a player in national political conventions.
Mr. Sullivan, mayor of Oswego from 1988 to 1991, was co-chairman of the state Democratic party from 1995-98, named upstate coordinator in 2014 for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign and New York state deputy medicaid inspector general from 2007 to 2009.
In 1967, Mr. Sullivan was an intern in Robert Kennedy’s office. Robert was attorney general during his brother John F. Kennedy’s administration. He later served as a U.S. Senator and was assassinated in June of 1968 during his run for the presidency.
Mr. Sullivan said he watched “The Trial of the Chicago 7” with keen interest.
“It brought back a lot of distant memories,” Mr. Sullivan, 73, said. “What’s going on today is similar to what was going on in 1968 in terms of intensity of political polarization. People were ‘Love it or leave it,’ ‘don’t burn the flag,’ draft dodgers and this and that. Back then, it was as much a generational split as it was a rural/urban split. But it was intense, nonetheless.”
In an online story for The Atlantic, David Sims wrote that Mr. Sorkin “is telling the right story for the right moment.”
“‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is debuting less than a month before Election Day, amid complaints that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has been deployed as a political tool,” Mr. Sims wrote.
In 1969, John Mitchell, the Attorney General for newly elected President Richard Nixon, picked attorney Richard Schultz to lead a case against the Chicago activists.
“The parallels are painfully obvious,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Once you politicize the justice system, do you have justice? What happens to justice for all? It goes out the window. The whole idea is to maintain the integrity of the justice system and fairness for all. Politicizing the justice department is an abomination. It’s an abomination then and it’s an abomination now.”
Mr. Sullivan said that as he watched the film, he had forgotten that Judge Julius Hoffman barred Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General, from testifying as a witness for the defense.
“The themes in the movie and the themes in terms of what is happening today are remarkably similar,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Yet, when you boil it down, I thought that the most significant part of the movie was the ending when they started reading the names of the people who died in the Vietnam War. Who started the protest and what caused the ruckus? Does it really matter when you look back and say, ‘Look what happened.’ There was an injustice going on that people had to stand up for. And when they did, they got their heads bashed in.”
He recalled this past June when President Trump flooded Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., with police officers and the National Guard who used tear gas and other riot control tactics to clear the way for the president.
“He organized a militia to move peaceful protestors out of the way so he could stand there and hold up a Bible and tear gas people?” Mr. Sullivan said. “What pains me is that if we don’t understand history, we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Mr. Sullivan said he wasn’t surprised as a young man when he heard of the rulings against the Chicago 7.
“It was a done deal,” he said. “The trial that was conducted was a zoo. It was very clear that they were going to blame protestors, not the police.”
Mr. Sullivan met Abbie Hoffman, one of the Chicago 7, years later, in 1976 in St. Lawrence County when the political and social advocate visited the north country.
“He volunteered for Norma Bartle’s campaign for Congress,” he said.
Ms. Bartle lost to incumbent Republican Robert C. McEwen.
Cary R. Brick served as executive assistant to Rep. McEwen and Congressional Chief of Staff for Congressman David O’B. Martin, both of St. Lawrence County, and John McHugh of Jefferson County during a Washington, D.C., career that spanned 30 years.
Mr. Brick said he knew and got along with Mr. Hoffman when he became known as St. Lawrence River advocate Barry Freed.
In 1981, Mr. McEwen was appointed by Ronald Reagan to the International Joint Commission, the United States-Canada body that advises the governments of the two countries on issues related to boundary waters.
“I recall taking Barry’s picture with Rep. McEwen in D.C. with the Capitol as backdrop,” Mr. Brick said.. “That picture has been published several times. They had a cordial, but not close, relationship. McEwen quietly agreed with Barry’s anti-winter navigation stance, but was reluctant to jump on the Barry bandwagon of public protest.”
After Mr. McEwen’s death in 1997, Mr. Brick said, his widow donated his boat to Save the River organization.
Dave Martin disliked Barry Freed with a fervor, Mr. Brick said.
“Martin agreed to speak at a Save the River event at Alex Bay with the promise of Save the River that Barry would not be there,” Mr. Brick said. “That said, Barry showed up toward the end of the Martin remarks. The Congressman walked past him as we went back to the car. No words were spoken, just a glare. Martin was furious, burning with anger, though he kept it to himself until we left the building.”
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