August 28, 1968
by Amy
6:10 a.m.
I don't know the specifics yet, but they've arrested Glasses for littering. At around 3 this morning, Glasses was at the Grant Park band shell. He was with four other people, including his two pig tails. He put a stack of pamphlets on the ground - just for a moment - so he could grab a clipboard and the tails walked over and arrested him. People around him were stunned. They started yelling. Glasses instructed them to calm down and call Legal Aid. So that's where we are, at the Legal Aid storefront near the park, trying to spring Glasses out.
I feel like I'm walking around under water. Maybe it's lack of sleep, but this week feels like forever.
10:20 a.m.
It's going to take a while to get him out. Legal Aid figures that they'll hold people until after the convention. Lesley has offered to step in and try to stage manage the speeches, etc. I'm going to try to help out as well. My original plan for today was to try and do some organizing with the McCarthy sock hop kids and young hippies.
The problem, as we originally thought it would be, is that people have no place to stay. Not as many have shown up as we thought. But the people who are here have built a community. I love being with them. I love talking to other women about their experiences in the Movement. I love helping kids find a place to crash. It's the community, the sense that we can have a community without the government. The police have done everything they could to break us up. I know it's because they have no power in our community. They could join us and be with us. The invitation is always there. They won't join us because they see us as a threat. ... A community that has no right to exist.
12:10 p.m.
Kid's left eye is blazingly blue from the hit he took from a PL member. Coleman happened to be there, interviewing a member when Kid arrived. He began screaming "RED COMMIE" to the PLs. While Progressive Labor makes no bones about who they are and what they represent, they didn't like the scene. Kid also mentioned that he's the son of a pig. So they kicked the shit out of Kid. Coleman saved him.
That's Coleman's version, though Kid doesn't deny any of it. I had my doubts about Coleman's story, since he thinks Kid's a pest. At one point, Coleman called him Piglet but that pissed off a nearby hippie. "Leave Piglet alone, man. He never did anything to you."
2:30 p.m.
Lesley says that Glasses is getting out of the clinker. I don't know how it happened or when he will show up again. He asked me to go to a church to pick up a sealed envelope for him. I also need to make sure that no one follows me. I wonder what it is.
