Chapter 8, August Summary and Analysis

The author describes convention events and then comments on his sense of deja vu. After this, he pinpoints the memories that served as the precedent for his current moment. He makes his way through a demonstration during the campaign. There is a crowd, and the cops are armed for riot control. The situation was so bad that the police used noxious gasses to thwart the mob. The police, like most disciplinarians, are feared, respected and frowned upon with condescension. Thompson writes of how he was able to find a way to clear the gas from his burning eyes. When he got it back together and looked around he made another important observation. He noticed that the cops loitering around hadn't really helped him. Then he recalls how in the city where he first experienced something like this they would...