Socialist student movements have already begun planning their possibly violent assault on the Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention.

These groups have been a fixture at party conventions in recent years, sure. But this time shows all the signs of chaos on a much grander scale. Anyone who looks closely will see uncanny parallels with the 1968 Chicago riots, the mother of all violent American protests.

The socialist students have been calling themselves the “Recreate ‘68 Committee.” References to it already litter the internet. Like in 1968, they have begun planning a year in advance. In preparation for the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago, protesters held protests the year before in … New York.

These two be-ins gave the Yippies valuable experience in dealing with city and police officials. At the “Yip-in” in Grand Central Station, Yippie learnt what actions police would likely take if pressed into an uncomfortable situation.

 That sounds remarkably like what happened Friday in New York.

It’s war! Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters — emboldened by officials backing down this morning from evicting them from their Zuccotti Park campsite for a 7 a.m. cleaning — stormed Wall Street, leaping over barriers and getting into a fracas with cops.

In 1968, Mayor Richard Daly, amassed a force of 12,000 police officers, 6,000 National Guard members and 6,000 Army troops. He assured everyone that all would be peaceful.

What happened next would go down in history. It would take police eight days to regain control of the streets of Chicago after political protests turned to riots that got out of hand.

That’s why, as I warned last week, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police must stay on top of this.

Sure, you ask, but how much damage could mere hundreds of socialist nutso students do? A lot, it turns out, and that is where police here could be easily fooled in exactly the same way Chicago leaders were. The group that camped out in the Chicago park in 1968 was only 700 strong.

It was when it swelled to 10,000, the vast majority of them Chicago locals, that the real problems started. But that’s Chicago. That would never happen in a place like Char- wait a minute. It already has. In May.

Police said large crowds – as many as 30,000 people – gathered in and around the transit center after Speed Street ended at 11 p.m. …

The melee was one of the worst in Charlotte’s uptown since violence broke out among large crowds after a Fourth of July fireworks show in 2006. In the years that followed, police cracked down heavily on uptown revelers during major events, arresting 169 people during July 4 celebrations in 2007.

These people will be driven stark raving mad if it looks like Obama could lose by convention time. And that’s the big potential difference between the 2012 protests and those in Denver in 2008 (which were also protested by a group calling itself Recreate 1968) where Obama was nominated and all looked up for socialism.

But this group, like the ones in New York, claim to be protesting Obama for not being socialist enough, you say. That’s true. And it’s also part of the ruse. It helps Obama by making him look less radical. But mainly it helps Obama that these groups, who are for the moment using the banner Occupy Wall Street, are not-so-coincidentally targeting the same big name Wall Street entities he has built his reelection strategy around demonizing.

It’s the same message from both Obama and the protesters. Blame Wall Street for your problems.

And that’s where Charlotte officials could underestimate the potential problem — by studying anarchist activity in the past, like at the Denver convention in 2008, and assuming that this convention will be similar. In fact, it appears that is what Charlotte officials are already doing. In March, they seemed surprised by the extent of the communist/anarchist protest activity in Denver.

[Charlotte Chamber President Bob] Morgan explains how the Charlotte delegation was somewhat surprised to learn that managing various groups of protesters are a significant part of running a convention.

“Some of whom, by the way, do not come with peaceful intent,” says Morgan. “They are self-described anarchists who want to come and make mischief and draw attention to their cause.” Later, he adds that “we want to be a lot more like Denver in ’08 than Chicago in ’68.”

 Let’s hope they wake up, or that the protestors calm down, before the convention.