ABSTRACT
The media's coverage of demonstrations used to focus primarily on the colorful aspects such as the demonstrators' appearance, slogans, or clashes with counter-demonstrators or the police. Authors have not conducted a study of the limitations imposed by the Chicago police on anti-war demonstrations during the August 1968 Democratic convention, but they seem to be a case in point. Obviously, to avoid the violence which resulted both from attacks on the demonstrators and from the blockage of this avenue of political expression, it is necessary that full police protection be extended to the demonstrators and that the political leadership clearly and repeatedly emphasize the legitimacy of peaceful demonstrations. This violent proportion can be reduced to an even smaller one by doing everything possible to provide for peaceful demonstrations: by offering as much leeway in local, state, and national laws and regulations as possible, granting greater police protection, and demanding more self-discipline of the demonstrators.
