Abraham A. Ribicoff Quotes
With George McGovern we wouldn’t have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago.
Outside the convention, there were demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The Police of Chicago under the direction of Mayor Daily tried to break up the demonstrations and created what the Kener investigation called a “police riot.” The techniques the Chicago police used were those similar to those of dictatorships and many of the delegates could see what was really going on outside via TV sets in their hotel rooms.
Abraham A. Ribicoff, 1910-1998, U. S. Congressman & U. S. Senator (Democrat, CT), Governor of Connecticut, U. S. Secretary of Health Education & Welfare, Nominating speech for George McGovern, Democratic National Convention, 1968
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Hirsh had uncovered CIA illegal surveillance of anti Vietnam war protesters in the late 1960s. They broke two sets of laws. First, the CIA had no authority to investigate and track American Citizens anywhere but particularly American citizens. Second, the FBI which did have the authority to investigate Americans, were not allowed to use the methods that the CIA did. They violated not only Federal Law and Rules, but also violated the 4th Amendment Rights of thousands of citizens.
This quote is often cited to imply that Luther endorsed rioting which is not the case. See the related quotes from the same speech for the larger context of the quote which makes clear Luther’s true views of the unproductiveness and destructiveness of rioting.
Defending his administration and the Chicago police against the charge that they used excessive force and caused a police riot during the Democratic National Convention of 1968:
Kennedy was initially very opposed to a civil rights march on Washington and seemed very annoyed to the Blacks in attended. But when faced with the reality of the fact that the March was going to take place and he could not prevent it, he turned around and did everything he could do to protect the marchers and enable the historic event.
Lincoln had instituted the first draft in American History and it was terribly resented by many Americans. The draft laws allowed the wealthy and upper middle class to avoid service by paying a $300 fee of hiring a substitute just like in the Vietnam War the upper classes could get College Draft deferments. The mob led mostly by poor Irish, began by protesting the draft; then they attacked the mansions and houses of the wealthy; and then they went after Blacks. The Irish poor feared large numbers of Negroes coming out of slavery and competing for their jobs and lowering the prevailing wages. Blacks were beaten and lynched and 5,000 almost half of the then Negro population were driven to Brooklyn, New Jersey and the New York suburbs. It was the worst riot in United States History.
This general perception led the Founding Fathers to place profound restrictions on the allowable role of the military in national law enforcement—a condition that exists to this day.
The 1968 convention turned out to be a debacle with police riots in the streets and parks.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo silently marched every week asking what had happened to the children—the disappeared—who were kidnapped and murdered in the Argentine Dirty War. The President warned the crowd that their protests might attract the death squads again.
He was arguing that the government should be able to prohibit public demonstrations on the grounds that the protesters are “irresponsible power.” This position has been taken sometimes by the American right, and is common in all totalitarian states.
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was an American Democratic Party politician from the state of Connecticut. He represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives and Senate and was the 80th Governor of Connecticut and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in President John F. Kennedy's cabinet. He was Connecticut's first and to date only Jewish governor.
