G20 was held in Pittsburgh this week. 20 world leaders came together to discuss the world's current financial situation. This was a huge event for Pittsburgh, a city that reinvented itself from a failing economy in the 80's to one of the most livable cities in America. 20 world leaders brings thousands of riot police and hundreds of protesters. For the most part the protesters were civil and peaceful and those that had permits did not have any trouble with the police. It was the handful of anarchists denouncing capitalism that caused destruction of many businesses, some even local ones(they hit Pamela's, home to some of the best damn pancakes you'll ever have). These handful of ill-informed twenty-somethings incited the wrath of hundreds of police with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and police batons. Curious college students, wanting to see first-hand the importance of G-20 and why thousands of policemen in riot gear have invaded their campus, got caught in the mix.
On thursday night, after being reminded many times that people outside were part of an unlawful assembly and must disperse, a large group of students seeing their campus overrun by police and protesters were gathered on their dorm patio. The police were apparently tired of waiting for the students to disperse so they stormed the patio, causing students to flee towards the locked doors of their dorms. Those too slow were slammed to the ground and arrested, no questions asked. It was a frightful night, the police acted quickly and with excessive force, but over 10 businesses had their windows shattered due to unruly protesters and some action had to be done. It was the next night where things really got out of hand.
Friday night a peaceful protest was held at 10 pm in Schenley plaza, a common meeting place for college kids. Some protesters were playing duck duck goose, or as they called it anarchist anarchist cop. At around 10:30, the police declared it an unlawful assembly and called for immediate dispersal. What followed was students and protesters alike in the streets of their own campus, getting trapped, gassed, shot at, pepper sprayed, beaten and arrested. The show of excessive force on Friday night by the police against students on their own campus is something that should not be overlooked.
These ireports and other videos will show you how brutal these policemen really were. Sorry for a not-so-funny post, Emily.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333876
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333897
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333880
http://www.pittnews.com/node/20100
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Holy shit. I read about this. I have a fairly low opinion/amount of respect for police in general, but this is stomach-turning.
ReplyDeleteKind-of-funny sidenote: I was an anarchist in 8th grade for a minute. No, really.