September 24 is the anniversary of The Chicago 8 Trial of 1968. This was a conspiracy trial asserting that these seven men were responsible for inciting violence at an anti-war protest the month before. Of course, they were all leftists.

What actually happened during the protest was that thousands of police showed up and started teargassing and beating the protesters. The police later said in their defence that the protesters should not have broken curfew or resisted arrest. The protesters remained largely peaceful even in the face of this, and there was only one protester killed, although hundreds of more faced injuries.

Despite the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence labelling it as a police riot, and the Attorney General requesting an investigation into the police, eight protesters were chosen to be scapegoated instead. Despite the conspiracy charges, one of them had never even met the others. So the US selected the most biased judge they could find, and began the trial.

The defendents weren’t having any of it, and sought to show the world in court, what a mockery the US legal system was. The trail ended with 159 charges of contempt of court for both the defendants and their council, but the jury acquitted them of the conspiracy charges.

All of the contempt charges were later dropped in an appeals court when it was found that the judge was not impartial, and the FBI had attempted to tamper with the jury. They’d succeeded in showing the world that the conspiracy wasn’t their doing. It was the US government.