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