CIVIL UNREST IN AMERICA: IS 2024 A REPEAT OF 1968?
By Bob O’Brien, Jim Weiss, and Mickey Davis

“Not since 1968—a tumultuous year marked by assassinations, division and widespread rioting—has the threat of political violence loomed as large as it does today.”
Brian Michael Jenkins

For those who have studied terrorism and counter-terrorism for any length of time, Brian Jenkins (quoted above) needs no introduction. He has been called by some “a leading Terror-ologist.”
Highlights from his decades-long bio will shed some light on his importance as an authority on terrorism and counter-terrorism spanning the decades from the 1960’s to the present time. During that time, he was with the U.S. Army Special Forces—Dominican Republic, Vietnam War—and one of the earliest in academia to take the topic of Terrorism seriously. His expertise in that area led to the start of the Rand Corporation’s Terrorism Research Program, and he was advisor to several US presidential administrations as well as government agencies.

Brian Jenkins’ RAND Commentary

A Plan to Address Political Violence Before Election Day contains the subsection “Addressing the Threat of Political Violence in the 2024 Elections.” This 70-page summary report serves as both a warning and a playbook for those charged with overseeing public safety at the federal, state, and local levels.

To create it, Jenkins assembled a small circle of active and former senior law enforcement officers, national security analysts, and legal scholars who participated in a months-long workshop in which they discussed the country’s readiness to deal with political violence during the forthcoming elections.

Political Violence in America

Jenkins points out that Americans have gone to the polls more than 100 times since 1788. But not since 1968— a “tumultuous year marked by assassinations, division, and widespread rioting—has the threat of political violence loomed as large as it does today.”

According to many historians, 1968 is considered a year of revolution worldwide in a number of European nations and in America. In the United States, the catalyst was the Vietnam War, with campus protests, demonstrations, and riots. In urban America, the April 4, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King sparked widespread rioting, often deadly, in cities across the nation. More recently, Jenkins refers to the 2020 election with the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, localized clashes in many cities, political polarization, and angry rhetoric.
For those who doubt the extent of political violence in America, Jenkins cites this startling fact: Eight out of the twenty-one presidents elected since 1900 (more than one third) have been shot or shot at. Two were killed.

The most recent was the attempted sniper assassination and wounding of former President and current GOP candidate Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Prior to that, the last time a president was shot was Ronald Reagan in 1991, a full thirty-three years prior.\

Assassinations: While it isn’t considered a politically violent nation, the U.S. has had its share of political violence. Consider that both 2024 and 1968 share another dubious distinction: political assassination attempts.

In July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania, a sniper shot and wounded former president Donald Trump. The would-be assassin was shot and killed by a Secret Service Counter Sniper.

In June 1968 in Los Angeles, California, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The assassin was arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. This was the second prominent figure assassination in only two months. In April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by a sniper who fled to Canada and then to the United Kingdom, where he was captured. He was charged, convicted, and sentenced to 100 years; he died in prison.

Both assassinations sparked widespread outrage, and after MLK’s assassination, major rioting began in dozens of cities across the nation. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump has also sparked widespread outrage, but no rioting.

Riots 1968-2024

For those not familiar with the 1960’s, 1968 was the culmination of one of the most violent decades in modern American history. Many historians say 1968 was a year of near worldwide revolution, including in the United States.

Due to the large number of incidents that took place that year, several significant acts of violence are today, long-forgotten footnotes of history, except to those who were involved or affected by them. Both of the following incidents occurred in 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Glenville Shootout and Riot, July 23-28, 1968

An estimated twenty-five heavily-armed Black Nationalist militants engaged Cleveland, Ohio, police in multiple running gun battles throughout several densely populated residential city blocks.
The Shootout began days of rioting, sniping, arson fires, and looting. It claimed the lives of eight people including four police officers, a citizen helping police, and three Black Nationalists. Four more people were killed in the ensuing rioting.
Figures vary, but at least twelve more officers were wounded, as were an unknown number of other people.

Glenville occurred three months after the rioting that engulfed many cities after Dr. King was assassinated. However, only a very few know that, as terrible as it was, Glenville inadvertently prevented a much greater disaster. The original Black Nationalist plan was to launch simultaneous multi-city armed attacks the following day. Instead, the Shootout and rioting were confined to just Cleveland.

Rodney King Riot 1992

The year 1992 saw the deadliest riot in U.S. history since the Civil War. It took place in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four LAPD officers charged in the infamous Rodney King incident.

The LA rioting spread to a (thankfully) small number of other U.S. cities. In Las Vegas, Nevada, police were able to turn back a rioting mob headed to the famed casino Strip, thus preventing a major disaster.

While the Rodney King riot was confined mostly to LA, its ripple effect spawned immediate and widespread resentment and hatred of police, including in cities thousands of miles away. In those cases, while there was no rioting, police were widely subjected to angry “Rodney King” shouts.

The Rodney King riots had a profound impact on police everywhere. It was an impact that simmered for years, with periodic but isolated spillovers in succeeding years.

Oakland Riot 2009 and Ferguson Riot 2014

America was under siege, with the country’s police receiving most of the blame and hate—blame and hate that had been building steadily since 2009, and even more so since 2014.

The reason? Controversial incidents involving the use of force that resulted in the police being blamed and demonized. Rioting was mostly localized to Oakland, California (2009) and Ferguson, Missouri (2014).

Oakland in 2009 was where, for the first time, rioters consisted of both largely white radicals/militants, and also black street gangs. Downtown Oakland saw rioting that lasted for weeks. Fires were set, stores and vehicles had their windows smashed and vandalized, and there were attacks on police.

Oakland would prove to be a preview of Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Yet in both Oakland and Ferguson, daytime protests and demonstrations remained mostly peaceful. It wasn’t until nightfall that the trouble started in both cities.

The reason was that there were two very different types of protesters and demonstrators involved. In the daytime, they were exercising their constitutional right to peaceful protest. However, nighttime saw an influx of those with very different intentions. These usually started with demonstrators setting fires, throwing objects at police, breaking windows, vandalizing, etc. Then when police responded by making arrests and meeting violence with chemical and less lethal force, the situations would erupt into full-blown rioting. (In Ferguson, the nightly rioting turned especially dangerous, with suspects shooting at police who needed the protection of their Armored Rescue Vehicles.)

The Ferguson rioting lasted weeks, continuing into 2015. It’s believed many/most, of the rioters were not from Ferguson, and while some were from nearby St. Louis, many others reportedly were from out of state.

In the Oakland incident, a police officer was convicted and sentenced to prison. In the Ferguson incident, the officer involved was cleared of any and all criminality.

And yet, the protests continue to this day. The tenth anniversary of the Ferguson incident saw protests, most of which were peaceful, until nighttime when a group of protesters tore down a portion of the fence protecting the Ferguson Police Station, rushing inside, damaging property, etc. A police officer received severe brain damage when tackled by a violent protestor.
This attack prompted the new Ferguson Chief of Police to ask, "What are you protesting? The Ferguson Police Department has completely changed since 2014."

George Floyd Riot 2020

Consider 2020, an election year that saw America essentially in lockdown due to the Covid epidemic. However, it was also a year that saw the most controversial police incident since Rodney King twenty-nine years prior.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, it involved the arrest and death of George Floyd, resulting in immediate outrage and rioting, leaving much of Minneapolis burning and scarred. This included the fact that Minneapolis Police were ordered to abandon a besieged police station that was promptly invaded, taken over, and vandalized by rioting mobs.

The rioting soon spread to other cities across the entire nation. The worst rioting—besides in Minneapolis— took place in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Seattle rioters took over entire city blocks, including a police station that police had been ordered to vacate. Portland would see almost nightly rioting for many weeks and months afterward. Many more cities were engulfed in rioting, violent clashes with police, looting, arson, vandalism, and unprecedented curfews and lockdowns.

Unrest Today

Typical of many presidential election years, 2024 has proven to be a contentious, and at times, tumultuous election year. In this case, the protests and demonstrations have centered on the Israel vs. Hamas war in Gaza.

The war began when on October 7, 2023, without warning, Hamas invaded Israel, killing over a thousand Israelis and capturing two hundred hostages. Israel responded by activating its military and then attacking Hamas in Gaza.

At the time of this writing, the war still continues ten months later, and is precariously close to expanding to include Hezbollah, Lebanon, and potentially Iran.

While the U.S. has supported Israel with armaments and humanitarian supplies, the attack on Israel and subsequent Israel vs. Hamas war in Gaza has had a profound ripple effect in America. Numerous protests and demonstrations have occurred, particularly on college and university campuses nationwide.

While it was Hamas who attacked Israel, the protests and demonstrations have mostly been anti-Israel, pro-Gaza, and by inference, pro-Hamas.

Many college and university campuses have experienced protesters occupying tents and blocking entrances to campus buildings?—with some college buildings taken over by protesters—along with violence and vehement anti-Semitism directed toward Jewish students.

In 2024 at Columbia University in New York City, dozens of protesters invaded and took over buildings. Attempts to remove them failed, and the university called in NYPD to remove them, which they did, making a number of arrests.

About the Authors

Mickey (Michele) Davis is an award-winning, California-based writer and author. Her young adult novel, Evangeline Brown and the Cadillac Motel, won the Swiss Prix Chronos for the German translation. Mickey is the wife of a Vietnam War veteran officer. She served as a California fire department volunteer.
 
Lieutenant Jim Weiss (Retired) is a former Army light infantryman, school-trained Army combat engineer, a former school-trained (regular Army) Army military policeman, former State of Florida Investigator, and a retired police lieutenant from the Brook Park (OH) Police Department. He has written and co-written hundreds of articles for law enforcement and safety forces magazines, most notably Law and Order, Tactical Response, Tactical Edge, Police Fleet Manager, Knives Illustrated, Police, Police Marksman, Counter Terrorism, Tactical World, and Concealed Carry Handguns.
 
Sergeant Bob O'Brien (Retired) Cleveland, Ohio Police Department SWAT Sergeant.  CPD SWAT Unit co-founder. Law enforcement consultant, instructor, writer. Bob is a US Army Vietnam War veteran. He has been published in LAW and ORDER, Tactical Response, Tactical World (co-written with Jim and Mickey); in the past had a SWAT column in Police magazine.

 

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