The Chicago Five
The police didn’t kick ass this time around, but they did take names. Even before Clinton hit the podium, five people–Bonnie Tocwish, Robert MacDonald, Ron Schupp, Ben Masel, and Michael Durschmid–were arrested on charges of felony mob action and aggravated battery against two police officers. The incidents allegedly took place a couple of days earlier, at a demonstration on Tuesday, August 27. At 9:45 last Friday morning, all five came together with six attorneys in a courtroom at 26th and California. They were trying to convince a judge to quash those arrests.
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The demonstrations had been staged by a loose coalition of groups representing a variety of causes, from disarmament to drug decriminalization. The August 27 rally was organized by an ad hoc group called Not on the Guest List, and it attracted somewhere between 500 and 1,000 protesters. They marched out of Wicker Park and headed south on Ashland Avenue. They spilled off the sidewalk and into the street, taking a lane or two away from southbound traffic. Police claim they’d been told to stay on the sidewalk. Hundreds of officers followed the march on foot and on horseback until it reached an area around Washington and Wolcott. They were now close to the United Center, but police refused to allow the march to go any farther. That’s where, they say, things got out of hand.
There were so many groups represented at the protests that it looked like the police would have their hands full trying to locate the suspects. None of them had actually organized Tuesday’s demonstration, but the police knew they’d turn up. Masel, who wore a graying ponytail and a smart-ass grin, was already in custody for trespassing in front of the Hilton. He was passing out leaflets calling for the reform of marijuana laws. The rest were found on Thursday. In Durschmid’s case, the police didn’t have to track him down–he came to them. He was spotted at a demonstration against the arrests of the four other protesters at Area Four headquarters on Harrison. The five were picked out of lineups by police officers who’d been at the Tuesday demonstration. They were charged and then released on bond.
Schupp brought a sheaf of letters to court, tributes to his civil rights activism. He had letters of commendation from the Gandhi Institute Museum and Library in New Delhi and the United Nations Library in Geneva. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama never called him a jag off–neither did Richard M. Daley. They all wrote letters of praise.
Comparisons to the unruly trial of the Chicago Seven are still a stretch. Robert MacDonald’s attorney is Leonard Weinglass, who was junior counsel for the defense at that trial. But of the current defendants, only Masel crossed state lines. And while those earlier activists were famous before they became symbols, Tocwish, MacDonald, Schupp, Durschmid, and Masel are mostly unknown. With any luck, they’ll stay that way.
