Despite smaller crowds, activists at Democrats' convention call Chicago anti-war protests a success

CHICAGO (AP) — As far as Chicago’s storied protests go, the numbers outside the Democratic National Convention were unremarkable. But organizers say they did something leaders inside didn’t: Make the war in Gaza part of the agenda.

The stakes were high for Chicago. Despite hosting more political conventions than any other American city, comparisons to the infamous 1968 convention, when police clashed with protesters on live television, were hard to shake. And one small unsanctioned protest that resulted in dozens of arrests and tense police standoffs didn’t help.

But organizers who won the right to protest near the United Center, and police, who spent more than a year preparing, say they were successful in broadcasting different narratives about the nation’s third-largest city.

“This is a very large contingent of people who are not willing to stand by quietly while people who are committing genocide are in our city,” said student organizer Liz Rathburn. “We showed the world that.”

Expectations for massive protests in Chicago — which came a month after the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — were high. The largest protest in Milwaukee during the convention was roughly 1,000 people.

Chicago is known for its mass mobilizations, including in 2006 when nearly half a million people took to the streets to call for immigrant rights.

Organizers had predicted that as many as 20,000 would come to a march and rally on the convention's opening day. While they conceded that the numbers didn’t end up that high, they disagreed with the city’s much lower estimate of about 3,500 participants.

Hatem Abudayyeh, a lead organizer and co-founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said he was pleased with the turnout and the message of the largely family-friendly demonstrations that drew on the Chicago area’s large Palestinian population.

While activists backing numerous progressive causes came to Chicago, they united on a pro-Palestinian, anti-war message.

“We were the show,” Abudayyeh said. “The excitement was happening out here in the streets.”

Most of the large protests were relatively peaceful, but there were dozens of arrests after one group broke part of the security fence around the United Center and following an unsanctioned demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, who was highly visible at all of the major protests, said law enforcement leadership and communication with protest organizers contributed to the calm around convention. While Chicago had out-of-town police agencies helping with convention security, Chicago’s force alone handled the protests.

During the largest marches, hundreds of Chicago officers on bicycles lined the streets and guided protesters through residential streets surrounding the United Center.

“What we learned here is that preparation is everything,” Snelling said Thursday. “Two things you need for success: opportunity and preparation. We had the opportunity to respond to the Democratic National Convention, and we were prepared for it.”

However, police also faced criticism for their tactics and what some called excessive officer presence. In Milwaukee, police were notably absent at the largest convention protests.

During one demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate in downtown Chicago — organized by a group that was not part of the main activist coalition — police far outnumbered the dozens of protesters.

Rows of officers in riot gear and with wooden clubs closed off a busy downtown street to block in protesters. At one point, police surrounded protesters at a plaza, which resulted in several minor injuries and dozens of arrests.

Snelling, who praised officers’ handling, denied that police had “kettled” protesters — when police corral demonstrators in a confined area, a tactic that is banned under a Chicago consent decree. He called the response “proportional.”

In total, there were 74 arrests Monday through Thursday and no major injuries of protesters or police, Snelling said.

Still, the images of Chicago police and protesters facing off brought back flashes of 1968.

The demonstration outside the consulate was promoted with the slogan “Make it great like 68.” Whenever police and protesters came close, activists would start chanting “The whole world is watching,” a phrase used in the 1968 protests.

Snelling and city leaders have repeatedly said Chicago has evolved in the more than 50 years since, including by hosting the 1996 Democratic National Convention that largely went off without a hitch.

“If the 1968 convention went down in history as the example of police brutality, then the 2024 convention will go down as the example of constitutional policing," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Friday.

Snelling put it more bluntly: “Can we stop talking about 1968? 2024, it’s a new standard.”

Activists also took credit for the largely peaceful protests, saying they had their own security and followed city protocols.

A small group of delegates who are part of the “uncommitted” movement expressed dissatisfaction that they couldn't speak inside the convention and complained that mentions of Palestinians — who make up the the vast majority of the 40,000 killed killed in Gaza since October — were sparse. During Wednesday's convention program, the parents of a 23-year-old American who was taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel spoke.

Still, activists acknowledged smaller crowds than anticipated.

Some protesters speculated that having Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee might have kept some people home. While signs and chants during the protests called her complicit in the war, many said they would wait for her to announce her plans for U.S. involvement in the war.

“I am excited to see what she does for healthcare. I am worried about her policy regarding Palestine and Gaza,” said pharmacist Fedaa Balouta, who is Palestinian. “Our vote matters.”

Bayan Ruyyashi, a 30-year-old biologist from the Chicago suburbs, said she had little hope that the protests, regardless of size, would have a meaningful impact on those inside the convention.

Rather, she said she attended a march on Wednesday so that her three children — ages 8, 5, and six months old — could witness the display of community and solidarity.

“I want them to feel that we have support. It’s not just what we’re hearing from Democrats,” said Ruyyashi, whose family is Palestinian and Jordanian. “I need them to know that we’re fighting for our homeland.”

Protesters gather for a march to the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Protesters demonstrate prior to the Democratic National Convention Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Police replace a piece of fence knocked down by protesters surrounding the United Center at the Democratic National Convention after a march Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Protesters rally at a demonstration in Union Park during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Police detain a protester during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Children play in the water as protesters march prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024, in Chicago.(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Counter protesters arrive at Union Park before a march to the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

A police officer watches protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Protesters march passed a police line prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Police line up after a piece of fence was knocked down by protesters surrounding the United Center at the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)