Politics
Brandon Johnson Takes Victory Lap After ‘Best Political Convention This Country Has Ever Seen’
Mayor Brandon Johnson addresses the news media on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)
Mayor Brandon Johnson took a victory lap Friday morning, hours after the Democratic National Convention concluded with a shower of balloons, proclaiming it the “best political convention this country has ever seen.”
Johnson said he was especially proud of the way the Chicago Police Department handled four days of protests designed to urge Vice President Kamala Harris, now officially the Democratic nominee for president, to end the war in Gaza.
Chicago’s reputation as a home for political conventions should no longer be stained by the events around the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when massive anti-war protests along Michigan Avenue triggered a police riot, highlighting the party’s split over the war, and helping to elect former President Richard Nixon.
“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,” Johnson said at a City Hall news conference.
Seventy-four people were arrested during the protests. There were no serious injuries, and just eight complaints were filed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, records show.
“So again, please, now can we stop talking about 1968?” Supt. Larry Snelling said.
Johnson promised the convention would showcase the best of Chicago and rewrite its narrative on the national stage — and celebrated doing exactly that, despite facing a chorus of doubts that the rookie mayor could ace a test that would challenge even the most seasoned politicians.
“Now what they gonna say?” Johnson asked, quoting the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese.
There were people who were “rooting against Chicago and they were rooting for violence and chaos” to erupt around the convention, Johnson said.
“Every Chicagoan should be proud” that the city proved them wrong,” Johnson said, “Chicago, we did it. We did it.”
Not only were the protests mostly peaceful, but there was also no uptick of crime or violence elsewhere in the city, even with hundreds of officers focused on protecting the United Center and McCormick Place.
Shootings dropped 20%, homicides dropped 31% and robberies dropped 54% when you compare Aug. 19-22, 2023, and this week, Snelling said.
The successful convention will likely add to Johnson’s political capital reserve, allowing him to draw on it in the battles to come. First up: the mayor is set to detail the city’s budget gap for the 2025 fiscal year in the coming weeks.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
