G-20 opponents, police clash on Pittsburgh streets

[larrymeyer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/...ummit_protests

G-20 opponents, police clash on Pittsburgh streets


18 mins ago
PITTSBURGH – Police threw canisters of pepper spray and smoke at anarchists protesting the Group of 20 summit Thursday after the marchers responded to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins and throwing rocks.

The march turned chaotic at just about the same time that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle arrived for a meeting with leaders of the world's major economies.

The clashes began after several hundred protesters, many advocating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neighborhood toward the convention center where the summit is being held.

Police in riot gear stood guard near the protesters, who banged on drums and chanted "Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop."

The marchers did not have a permit and, after a few blocks, police declared it an unlawful assembly. They played an announcement over a loudspeaker telling people to leave or face arrest and then moved in to break it up.

Protesters split into smaller groups. Some rolled trash bins toward police, and a man in a black hooded sweat shirt threw rocks at a police car, breaking the front windshield. Some protesters used pallets and corrugated steel to block a road. Police said the windows at one bank branch were broken.

Officers fired pepper spray and smoke at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the pepper spray were coughing, complaining of eyes watering and stinging.

Some of the protesters were seen ducking into alleyways to change out of their all-black clothing.

The hundreds of marchers had included small groups of self-described anarchists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carrying black flags and others wearing helmets and safety goggles. Some held a banner that read, "No borders, no thanks." Another banner read, "No hope in capitalism."

Protesters unfurled a large banner reading "NO BAILOUT NO CAPITALISM" with an encircled "A," a recognized sign of anarchists.

An activist from New York City, dressed in a white suit with a preacher's collar, kicked off the march with a speech through a bullhorn.

"They are not operating on Earth time. ... They are accommodating the devil," he said. "To love democracy and to love the earth is to be a radical now."

The activist, Billy Talen, travels the country preaching against consumerism. He initially identified himself as "the Rev. Billy from the Church of Life After Shopping."

The G-20 summit begins Thursday evening with a welcome ceremony and ends late Friday afternoon after a day of meetings at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Dignitaries were arriving in waves and were heading to a city under heavy security. Police and National Guard troops guarded many downtown intersections, and a maze of tall metal fences and concrete barriers shunted cars and pedestrians.

[larrymeyer]

How's the city and was anyone caught in this ??????

[27hand]

How's the city and was anyone caught in this ??????

No Larry. I live a dozen miles south and am reading your input.

There are a few on this board who live in pretty close proximity to downtown Pittsburgh. I just work there (except today and tomorrow that is.)

Thanks by the way.

27

[leeam]

I think this is what I was watching a satellite feed of early. It seemed rather peaceful actually. I saw the people dressed in black and the anarchist signs. Seemed pretty mild to me (aside from 2-3 dumpsters tipped over that I saw). Of course I was just watching the view of 1 camera man walking wiith the crowd, so could have been a lot I missed.

In other news, this is a great day for finding "interesting" feeds.

[Adam-12]

[LittleRedToyota]

typical media sensationalism.

i live right smack dab in the middle of it and spent all day following wandering around watching the protester v. police "clashes".

there were a few incidents--and even they weren't bad--but overwhelmingly things were peaceful. the news media just keeps showing the same few incidents over and over again. there weren't that many protesters and there were a ton of police. there were also more curious onlookers than real protesters, i think.

overall, the police just seemed to be using a strategy of not letting them make progress toward downtown. the police formed lines across the roads, declared the group an unlawful assembly and ordered them to disperse...after giving the order a few times, they would turn on a high pitch sound generator and people would disperse to the flanks to try to get by on side streets...but the police would intercept them and force them to go back or keep going sideways.

they were not looking to arrest people. there were a few arrests, but only when people basically forced it...one guy just sat down in the middle of the street and refused to leave. another guy took a handful of gravel and ran up to the police and threw it at them. but, for the most part, the police were very restrained and many were even happy to talk to us curious onlookers. the sound generator did its job very well, so they were able to redirect the protesters as they wanted. and the vast majority of the protesters did not do anything worse than walk in the street.

also, the police had relatively large groups of police stationed all over, so they were able to quickly deploy to intercept the protesters.

there were a couple incidents of protesters getting carried away, though. they blocked one street with dumpsters to try to keep the police from following them, but that was pointless as the police had contingents pre-staged all over so another group of police just cut them off anyway.

after the protesters were initially turned back, they filtered back basically to my house. we had already started heading downtown following them, but turned back to follow them back and eventually realized we better get back home because that's where they were headed. so there were a bunch of them hanging out on all of the streets surrounding us (we have streets on three sides of our house).

for the most part, they were just peacefully hanging out trying to figure out where to go next. there were a couple who lit the garbage in a dumpster on fire and ran down the street behind us with it. fortunately, they did not run it into any car or anything. despite a few incidents of dumpster relocation, they did not do any property damage near us.

the police did a fire tear gas canister to disperse the crowd that had gathered on the street in front of our house up a couple blocks. so the air around our house was a rather nasty mix of tear gas and burning garbage smoke. that dissipated pretty quickly though.

there was some property damage near shadyside, though (about 2 miles from my house). the protesters couldn't get around the police to go downtown, so they started toward oakland. near shadyside, a couple of them broke a couple of business's windows and the police fired rubber bullets at them. a few people were arrested there.

but, all in all, it was nothing like i expected. it was very calm and on a small scale. the police were very restrained. there was very, very little property damage. very few arrests.

the few businesses that were vandalized, though, i'm sure were not expecting it. one side effect of the police strategy of blocking the path to downtown was to cause the protesters to fan out into residential neighborhoods and other business neighborhoods that were not logically in the protester's path and would not have expected to be effected.

it is a bit interesting that the police brass seemed to be willing to sacrifice residential neighborhoods in order to keep the protesters away from downtown...though it turned out the protesters didn't really do any damage to the residential neighborhoods, there was no way to know they wouldn't ahead of time. i guess us lowly taxpayers now know where we are on the priority list.


oh, i observed no pee, poo, or rotten eggs at all.

[Emptymag]

Thanks for the first hand update.
Honestly, I've not watched much news coverage, as I've been busy, not to mention that I can't stand the sensationalism that the local news uses to cover the riots... errr... I mean violenc... umm... I mean protests.

Yeah, I actually heard one of them correcting herself mid-sentence as she reported live. She wanted to say "rioters" because it sounds better(for ratings),but she stopped and said "protesters".

I did see the footage of the FIVE guys in all black clothing, pushing the dumpster down the street with what appeared to be a crowd of "normal" onlookers... I muttered "retards", and walked away from the television.

Seriously? Five retards pushing a dumpster? Yeah, that'll bring about worldwide change.

[DaveM55]

I just finished three 12 hours shifts working the G20.

I didn't see a single protester as I wasn't posted downtown.

It was long and boring for me.

And the couple hundred Police from various federal agencies I worked with were equally bored. And they did get posted downtown.

And we were all glad nothing happened near us.

BTW: I was posted at a hotel where a bunch of federal police were staying.

[MrsMtnJack]

I just finished three 12 hours shifts working the G20.

I didn't see a single protester as I wasn't posted downtown.

It was long and boring for me.

And the couple hundred Police from various federal agencies I worked with were equally bored. And they did get posted downtown.

And we were all glad nothing happened near us.

BTW: I was posted at a hotel where a bunch of federal police were staying.

glad to hear it! i was praying for you all.

sorry cant rep your effort... but ... knowing you from your posts i think whereever you where would've been better for you being there.
(dumb rep button cant get LRT either for great spying/infiltrating and journalism)

[pyld]

BTW: I was posted at a hotel where a bunch of federal police were staying.

I'm told the USSS took over the Cranberry Marriott. Yinz up that way?