| "It's going to be a combination Scopes
trial, revolution in the streets, Woodstock Festival and People's Park,
all rolled into one." -- Abbie Hoffman
* *
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"It's going to be the most important
political trial in the history of the United States." -- Jay
Miller, director of the Illinois Division of the American Civil Liberties
Union
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"This is a criminal trial, not a political
trial. I intend to play it as straight as possible. They can
monopolize the rhetoric. I'm interested in the jury." -- Thomas Aquinas
Foran, the United States Attorney
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"Gentlemen, let's get something straight.
The police aren't in the streets to create disorder; they are in
the streets to preserve disorder." -- Mayor Richard Daley
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ABBIE HOFFMAN: Are you
asking if I had those thoughts or if I wrote that I had those thoughts?
There's a difference.
RICHARD G. SCHULTZ, THE ASSISTANT U.S.
ATTORNEY: It's a convenient difference, isn't it Mr. Hoffman?
ABBIE HOFFMAN: I don't
know what you mean. I've never been on trial for my thoughts before.
* *
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"Those who incite to violence should
be punished whether or not freedom of speech is impaired."
-- Congressman Robert L.F. Sikes
(Democrat, Florida), during debate on the "antiriot' provisions of the
1968 Civil Rights Act.
* *
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"The Conspiracy in the streets needs: freedom,
actors, peace, turf, money, sunshine, musicians, instruments, people, props,
cars, air, water, costumes, sound equipment, love, guns, freaks, friends,
anarchy, Huey free, a truck, airplanes, power, glory, old clothes, space,
truth, Nero, paint, paint, help, rope, swimming hole, ice cream, dope,
nookie, moonship, Om, lords, health, no hassles, land, pigs, time, patriots,
spacesuits, a Buick, people's justice, Eldridge, lumber, panthers, real
things, good times." -- Leaflet handed out by the Conspiracy office
in the week before the trial.
* *
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"Conspiracy? Hell, we couldn't agree
on lunch." -- Abbie Hoffman
* * *
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"They understood that you didn't have to
attack the fortress anymore. You could just surround it, make faces
at the people inside and let them have nervous breakdowns and destroy themselves."
-- Norman Mailer
* * *
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"Would you like your children to grow up
like them?" -- A Chicago Seven Trial juror
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"Our strategy was to give Judge Hoffman
a heart attack. We gave the court system a heart attack, which is
even better." -- Jerry Rubin
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