Police Fire Gas on G-20 Protesters

(CBS/AP)  Updated 6:28 p.m. EDT

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

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

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

The ACLU estimates that as many as 1,000 people are participating, although the group that assembled was much smaller than had been anticipated reports CBS Station KDKA in Pittsburgh.

The protesters 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 included small groups of self-described anarchists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carrying black flags. Others wore helmets and safety goggles.

One banner read, "No borders, no thanks," another, "No hope in capitalism." A few minutes into the march, protesters unfurled a large banner reading "NO BAILOUT NO CAPITALISM" with an encircled "A," a recognized sign of anarchists.

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 police in riot gear moved in to break it up.

Protesters split into smaller groups. Some rolled large metal trash bins toward police, and a man in a black hooded sweat shirt threw rocks at a police car, breaking the front windshield. Protesters broke windows in a few businesses, including a bank branch and a Boston Market restaurant.

Officers fired pepper spray and smoke at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the pepper spray coughed and complained that their eyes were watering and stinging.

The Secret Service told KDKA in Pittsburgh that the police used OC vapor and smoke, not tear gas.

Police were planning a news conference to discuss their response. Officers were seen taking away a handful of protesters in cuffs.

About an hour after the clashes started, the police and protesters were at a standoff. Police sealed off main thoroughfares to downtown.

Twenty-one-year-old Stephon Boatwright, of Syracuse, N.Y., wore a mask of English anarchist Guy Fawkes and yelled at a line of riot police. He then sat cross-legged near the officers, telling them to let the protesters through and to join their cause.

"You're actively suppressing us. I know you want to move," Boatwright yelled, to applause from the protesters gathered around him.

Protesters complained that the march had been peaceful and that police were trampling on their right to assemble.

"We were barely even protesting," said T.J. Amick, 22, of Pittsburgh. "Then all of a sudden, they come up and tell us we're gathered illegally and start using force, start banging their shields, start telling us we're going to be arrested and tear gassed. ... We haven't broken any laws."

Bret Hatch, 26, of Green Bay, Wis., was carrying an American flag and a "Don't Tread on Me" flag.

"This is ridiculous. We have constitutional rights to free speech," he said.

The National Lawyer's Guild, a liberal legal-aid group, said one of its observers, a second year law student, was among those arrested. Its representatives were stationed among the protesters, wearing green hats.

"I think he was totally acting according to the law. I don't think he was provoking anyone at all," said Joel Kupferman, a member of the guild. "It's really upsetting because he's here to serve, to make sure everyone else can be protected. ... It's a sign that they are out of control."

The march had begun at a city park, where an activist from New York City, dressed in a white suit with a preacher's collar, started it off 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 was beginning Thursday evening with a welcome ceremony at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden 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.

Hundreds of police in riot gear were seen massing at Phipps, but only a handful of demonstrators were there.

Local video from CBS Station KDKA

Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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Local Video from KDKA in Pittsburgh

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[Readysteady007]

Sour election losers:cant wait for 8 years??Cry baby cry,boehoe hoe you lost and now you are still crying.( months have gone!!You need a shrink to help you cope with loss,you azzwipes!!!We will still keep the house after 8 years because lovergirl:"Palin" is gonna run.hahahah Please let her run so we can win not 60% but 100% ,you lousy dessertworms.Obama is President ,go suck on that,you sleezy worms.Instead of batons we should use bamboo sticks,you dizzy eals!You drove all the way from Florida?There is nothing better to do??Katrina survivors needed you then,not now you lousy worms.This is a G20 summit,not your lousy teaparty.Anyway there is never tea to be found,all I saw were old hags running around with signs.Lousy brats stay were you are we dont need worms up here.We gassed your butt the same way Hitler did.Stay in school,and please finish 2nd.grade,you dumbazzez.

[Readysteady007]

Sour election losers:cant wait for 8 years??Cry baby cry,boehoe hoe you lost and now you are still crying.( months have gone!!You need a shrink to help you cope with loss,you azzwipes!!!We will still keep the house after 8 years because lovergirl:"Palin" is gonna run.hahahah Please let her run so we can win not 60% but 100% ,you lousy dessertworms.Obama is President ,go suck on that,you sleezy worms.Instead of batons we should use bamboo sticks,you dizzy eals!You drove all the way from Florida?There is nothing better to do??Katrina survivors needed you then,not now you lousy worms.This is a G20 summit,not your lousy teaparty.Anyway there is never tea to be found,all I saw were old hags running around with signs.Lousy brats stay were you are we dont need worms up here.We gassed your butt the same way Hitler did.Stay in school,and please finish 2nd.grade,you dumbazzez.

[gboyd41]

Stuart-johns: these are anarchists, the polar opposite of (R). Look it up in the dictionary. Now you are showing your true lack of intelligence.

[alphaa10000]

Some were anarchists, but many others were not, so a dictionary is not the ticket.

The CBS account was misleading in painting the G-20 protests as a demonstration of anarchists, and reflects weak editorial supervision.

The point of editorial oversight is to provide background, perspective, insight and depth.

There are many valid criticisms of predatory corporate and multinational capital, and for that--

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4293

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Warfare

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/07/09/michael-moores-next-movie-capitalism-a-love-story/

[alphaa10000]

THE MISSING NEWS

CBS/AP report, "Police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers protesting the Group of 20 summit Thursday after anarchists responded to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins and throwing rocks..."
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In a Jeffersonian model of democracy, public protest is about ideas, and protest becomes an essential part of the public forum

This news article, however, invests little attention and energy on ideas and beliefs-- not nearly as much as devoted to recent protests of health care reform. The article presents abundant surface detail, but omits even a modest history and background for the G-Summit protests.

For that reason, this article is potentially misleading, and it paints the protest march with much too broad a brush, as staged by "anarchists".


IDEAS COMMON TO G-SUMMIT PROTESTS

Various groups have participated over the years, and describing these groups and their ideas and platforms would provide a clearer understanding of the general basis for protest.

Instead, the press seems relatively obtuse and uninformed. While there were fewer marchers, there are many more significant ideas and criticisms-- criticisms at least as factual as any shouted during the health care parades.

For example-- sharing ideas with G-Summit protests of previous years-- the majority of protesters are critical of capitalism as practiced by the G-Summit states, but not necessarily critical of capitalism when practiced with social responsibility. Many, if not most of the protesters are not hostile to all capitalism, but only predatory corporate / multinationoal capitalism. This seeming contradiction invites an explanation never provided by the press.


THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE

It is no accident such protests first flared in the United States. The United States once led the world in melding concepts of community interest and social responsibility with its system of private ownership and capital investment. That movement was most prominent during the late 19th century "populist" movement, but extended well into the 20th century.

The widespread sense of experiment and community helped make this country a crucible of innovation. Far from limiting the power of capital, the American system married appropriate regulation with the capitalist engine to proliferate industry and generate a better standard of living.

The successful American experiment also made this country very attractive to the world, especially to immigrants whose descendants, today, vie for office in our largest cities.

American innovations (America not the only innovator) ranged from eliminating child labor to the five-day workweek and the policy of a minimum wage. This is the kind of capitalism of which Americans like to boast.

The GOP-sponsored Wall Street disaster of 2008 is the kind of capitalism of which Americans are ashamed, and 2008 was the year in which they registered a vote for change.

Clearly, CBS and the AP missed the core ideas behind the protest march.

[kaylag04]

"The marchers included small groups of self-described anarchists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carrying black flags."

Anarchists in uniform? It's nice to finally see some conformity and organization in anarchy. Really, until today's concerned youth got involved, anarchy was just too chaotic.

[credibility2]

I'm surprised the president isn't out in front of the mic asking the police to let the protesters demonstrate and express their extremist points of view, since that's the only way to overthrow any organized government or institution.

[erasmus111]

Huh?

[erasmus111]

by alanrobisch September 24, 2009 7:59 PM EDT
Nice to see your uncivil self. Calling republicans liars again. Real logical.


Actually it is logical. I don't usually put people under labels, but I do have to say that most people that I have come across that call themselves "Republicans", do indeed lie. Most times they can actually be proven to be liars and yet they never post any links to prove that they aren't. It takes a particular kind of person to spew their lies, be proven wrong every time, and continue right on spewing the same lies.

[erasmus111]

And I actually never thought that I would come across someone that lied as much as rowdy, but you alanrobisch are a pretty close match.

[erasmus111]

Of course there is gunownerdan....

[erasmus111]

Yup, the "sickness" is getting worse.

[alanrobisch]

I wonder what liberals' will see that acivist radicals on their side are using actual violence to protest. Gee whiz. I can't wait for the liberal columnists to come out with protests against the incivility of his yeah in a rat's butt. Its only when conservatives yell we are uncivil. when radical's we'll hear all the excuses under the sun to explain it away and I'm sure they won't be accused of racism.

Discussion of these riots will be written off as a radical fringe as they may be but at the same time when some conservatives make silly posters attacking the president we hear it for the next 3 months and it will prove that conservatives are ignorant racists who may use violence.

[stuart-johns]

Well see see there Alan, it's like this. These leftist loons or whatever they are, who protest at the G-20 have been doing this for years. We are used to those unbalanced individuals.

However, the same cannot be said for the republican extremists. They have only recently emerged since the election of President Obama. So they are a novelty, sort of. But these protestors are neither left nor right in the generic sense, they are anarchists, a little similar in fact to the ultra-right wing white supremacy groups, which of course lends some of its traits to the republican extremists. So you're all connected in one big un-happy family.

Seriously though, extremism driven by unwarranted fear is tragic no matter where it comes from.

[t_barr]

Police fire non-lethal rounds at G20 protesters
www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iR_D-oT-BIbZcneH3luorK4hxEsA

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania ? Police fired non-lethal "bean bag" rounds on demonstrators trying to disrupt the Pittsburgh G20 summit on Thursday, officers said.

"In response to having sticks, bricks and rocks thrown at them in the Shady Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, police responded with bean bag rounds and dispersed the crowd," FBI agent Bill Crowley told AFP.

So-called bean bags or flexible baton rounds are fired from an officer's riot shotgun. Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard said they were "softer" than rubber bullets.

"The police had sticks, rocks and other instruments thrown toward them so in defense of that, that was their way of dispersing the crowd. They had trash cans thrown at them, all kinds of different things," she said.

An AFP reporter saw a row of police fire the projectiles at protesters, some of whom said they had been hit by "rubber bullets".

Police also fired an orange gas as they tried to repel about 20 to 30 hardline protesters who were bombarding them with rocks and bricks.

One protester was taken away and detained by the police, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

escalating...