At the 1968 Democratic Convention, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and spent most of the week getting their skulls cracked courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million. A year later, eight of the most high profile radicals – guys like Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers' Bobby Seale – were tried on charges of conspiracy and inciting riots. The courtroom was a circus, with Seale gagged to silence his outbursts and ultimately sentenced to four years for contempt, while testimony from counterculture icons such as Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Norman Mailer and Timothy Leary drew massive crowds for the National Guard to disperse.
Results tagged “abbiehoffman”
As chains take over every nook and cranny of this city, some people in the East Village are forming a united front against them. The Villager reports on the corporate takeover, the resistance and the new spin on this story as old as time.
Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature.
"People create because they feel what everyone else is thinking." In 1964, Tommy Trantino was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two New Jersey police officers. In 1971, the death penalty was over turned and Trantino was sentenced to life in prison. During that time, Trantino wrote to Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven, which included social and political activist Abbie Hoffman. Through Hoffman, Trantino's letters were seen by an editor at Bantam, who commissioned him to write Lock the Lock, a collection of poetry, drawings, and autobiographical stories detailing Trantino's youth, the events that led to his incarceration, and the harrowing experiences he'd witnessed in prison. The book was praised by the likes of Howard Zinn and Henry Miller.
"Some Time in New York City" was released in 1972 as John Lennon's third post-Beatles album (and his fifth with Yoko Ono). Critically and commercially the album didn't do well, especially compared to Lennon's previous albums. "Imagine" had just come out in the 1971, and comparatively this one was brash, loud and more reflective of his political and new geographical surroundings at the time, in Greenwich Village.

Reverend Billy, Street Preacher, The Church of Stop Shopping
The lead paragraph from the Times says it best: "Two 17-year-old boys, apparently following instructions penned by Abbie Hoffman, caused a flash fire in a Brooklyn apartment yesterday afternoon while trying to make a smoke bomb on the stove." This was apparently on First Street, near Seventh Avenue, as the Park Slope St. Patrick's Day Parade marched by, so there were tons of police on the scene immediately. These kids also attend Bronx Science and La Guardia High Schools, so they are truly dummies of a rarefied kind. The book they were following was Steal This Book, of course.


