Police: students were fleeing arrest

From Rich Lord

"As a group, the police responded admirably," said Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, pledging an internal evaluation of what went right and wrong on the streets during and shortly after the summit. "We kept our city safe," he said while sending "a message to the out-of-town anarchists that this is our town."

Pittsburgh Police Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson said he made the much-discussed decisions on how to handle large Oakland gatherings.
On Thursday night, he said, the order to disperse was given when police became "concerned with the crowd size" not far from the Phipps Conservatory, where world leaders were gathered.

On Friday at 10:42 p.m., he said, police who were monitoring a Schenley Plaza gathering determined that "conditions had deteriorated," and gave the order to disperse to prevent the kind of fires and glass breakage they had seen the night before.

"When we moved them from the park, they then re-formed at Forbes Avenue," he said. "We didn't see any movement by the protesters to disperse until we started to effect arrests." At that point, students were not dispersing, but were instead fleeing arrest.

Officials said just six of the 190 people arrested for summit-related activities are still in custody. Claims by some arrestees that they were just caught up in the flow of the crowd will be evaluated, and in some cases charges may be dropped. Those whose lost property can claim it at the police headquarters property room.

Public Safety Director Michael Huss said that the city's Office of Municipal Investigations has gotten five complaints about the police, including one from a business that was affected by tear gas.

Posted Sep 28 2009, 03:02 PM by Timothy McNulty

Comments

BeTrueSeekTruth wrote re: Police: students were fleeing arrest
on Tue, Sep 29 2009 2:15 PM

This is an old military tactic. As old as the hills in fact. The order was given to disperse. When people complied with the order they were then said to be fleeing arrest when in fact they were commiting no crime. The first amendment guarantees the right to freedom of speech and assembly. The first amendment overrides any local law that attempts to prevent it. This is America. Also, how did taking a Police group photo of a "trophy" prisoner, cuffed and forced to kneel in front his captors, protect the world leaders? How about ganging up on a young woman and bludgeoning her for daring to question the Nazi police state tactics? What good did that serve? In my mind the Police motto "to serve and protect" should be changed to "To serve our global corporate masters and enslave the poplulation"

sdkeller wrote re: Police: students were fleeing arrest
on Wed, Sep 30 2009 2:53 AM

If they plan on charging one person from last weekends protests, there damn well better be some charges for the police as well.  There is a lot more video evidence of police brutality then there was property damage.  You are right BeTrue, we do have 1st amendment rights to assemble and protest, especially when the fate of our country depends on what those leaders were here to discuss.  I would buy the "no permit" excuse if they were actually approving permits.  You can't deny free speech, and expect us to lay down and shut up while you rape this country.  The more people that realize what their agenda is, the bigger and more violent these protests are going to get in the future.  America might be slow, but once fully informed the people will act quickly to throw out every politician that backs this kind of police oppression.

A friend of mine was in Oakland having dinner on Friday night, as he stepped out of the restaurant people were running from the cops.  He got stopped by the Nazi's and told them he wasn't a protester and that he had a receipt in his pocket from dinner.  What was their response?  They beat him with billy clubs, sprayed pepper spray in his face as he laid on the ground, and then arrested him.  After he was released 12 hours later, they kept all his personal belongings (watch, jewerly, wallet everything).  So this is what our democracy comes down to now?  Innocent people get beaten, gassed, and thrown into jail, and then their personal belongings are stolen from them?

The people of Pgh need to make a statement in November by throwing little Luke out on his rear for not only allowing this to happen in our city but actually inviting it.  Speak truth to power with your vote by showing these tyrants the door.  We pay their salaries, how dare they treat us in this manner.