Police Brutality In Pittsburgh

Facebook Post Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:25pm
This is what I have heard from eyewitnesses and victims, through the screen of my own views and commentary.
I wanted to believe that some police had simply given in to the stress of the week and went nuts Friday night. In fact, what happened was a well-coordinated attack on innocent students and Pittsburgh residents. This was not a few police officers venting, this was organized oppression. Let me be clear. The little bit of news coverage I have heard and seen has referred to police action against "protesters." Chief of police Nate Harper referred to "the anarchists." The majority of people hurt and arrested were NOT protesters. They were people going about life in Pittsburgh.

Setting the scene : Pittsburgh has been militarized for hosting the G-20. Some of the official G-20 events were at Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park, just over the bridge from Schenley Plaza in the heart of university territory. The main branch of the Carnegie Library, the concert hall, the museum complex, the Stephen Foster building w/theatres, the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, and more buildings overlook Schenley Plaza. The plaza has food vendors, benches, a grassy area, etc. -- lots of space to hang out. All over Pittsburgh the national guard in camouflage and the police in riot gear have been something of a tourist attraction, a curiosity drawing many cameras and onlookers. Some Pitt & CMU students were not happy at the militarization of their campus. Thursday night some students got too close to the line of police, the police rushed them to push them back, and an impromptu demonstration developed to reclaim the space. Teargas and arrests followed. So a few students said they would have a demonstration Friday night to protest Thursday night's police actions.

Who was actually on Schenley Plaza : I think from what I have heard that there were a few protesters, angry about Thursday night's events. Otherwise, life started getting back to normal. Some people came out to see what was happening. The big activity was a bunch of people playing a large game of Duck,Duck, Goose. Bypassers were invited to join in. Some friends of mine were on their way to a concert to unwind. Someone went to return library materials in the book slot outside the library. A professor was going home. Some students were hanging out chatting. Some people were simply walking from one place to another, with the plaza in between. It was a typical Friday night scene.

What happened : The police completely surrounded everyone and issued a warning to disperse since this was an unlawful assembly. (Since when has Duck, Duck, Goose been against the law?! Watch out, kindergartners!) The city parks close at 11 p.m., but this was before 11, and the attack happened before 11. People knew they were in trouble when they saw the tear-gas canisters coming out and weapons being aimed. People tried to get away and were not permitted to do so. Students and others were severely beaten, shot multiple times with rubber bullets, tear-gassed, and more. Innocent people were arrested with hands bound very tightly in plastic (for some bruising and numbing their hands), bussed to a holding area, and kept all night on the busses. Many were verbally abused. Sexual harassment and sexual abuse has been reported. On one bus the captors reviewed the young women and singled out the "hot ones." People who spoke to others and tried to comfort or tried to organize were silenced, being told they would not be released if they did not keep quiet. People in the buildings were not allowed to come out, so stood and witnessed this atrocious attack.

Please note that all of this happened AFTER the G-20 leaders left, most of the out-of-town protesters left, and the most of the out-of-town media left. During the legal march Friday afternoon when we march along streets lined with officers, hundreds of cameras were documenting the well-behaved police. Once the cameras switched off, late at night, someone (I do not know who) seemed to think it was now safe to order a vicious attack on unarmed students and Pittsburgh citizens.

Some people here are suddenly realizing firsthand what people in occupied countries are experiencing on a regular basis, connecting what happened here with what is happening in Honduras and Palestine and Iraq and Colombia and Afghanistan and elsewhere. This was not an isolated incident. We got a small taste of the harassment and brutality which people around the world face daily when trying to survive within government systems who fear their own people. "Preemptive strikes" before someone can hurt us seems to be the only motive I can come up with for Friday's attack. Let's beat up and terrorize people before they even think of becoming protesters. Let's make sure they never want to be part of a public demonstration against the powers that be.

I think this should be national news. I think this should be international news. I've been having flashbacks to when I was 9 years old one evening in May, with my sister off at college not far from Kent State, and my mother in a hysterical panic that she didn't send her daughter off to college to get shot. It is the only time I can ever remember my mother in a hysterical panic. It seemed to me later that the crime of students at Kent and Jackson State was being young and being students. So, now the weapons have changed. For this first time this week, a sonic noise weapon was used against civilians in the U.S.A. Rubber bullets were used, so people just got injured instead of killed. Some new type of gas is being used instead of the old teargas. However, it's still apparently a crime to be young, or to be anywhere near young students.

Please send me news reports you hear about this beyond Pittsburgh. I would like to know what (if anything) is actually being said.

I am really upset about what is happening in Honduras. I am aware that this attack in Pittsburgh is small compared to the suffering people are enduring elsewhere, but I do believe it is tied in and we need to speak out every opportunity we get.