Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party.
Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; when Seale's prosecution was separated from the others, they became known as the Chicago Seven. While the defendants were initially convicted of intent to incite a riot, the verdicts were overturned on appeal.
Hoffman arose to prominence in the 1960s, continued his activism in the 1970s, and has remained a symbol of the youth rebellion of the counterculture era.
Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions. legal & medical
The key to organizing an alternative society is to organize people around what they can do, and more importantly, what they want to do. society
You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists. freedom