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Pittsburgh Braced for G20 Protests
Police seal off city centre to insulate global leaders from potential protests surrounding G20 heads of government summit
A carefully drilled security operation swung into action in Pittsburgh today as police sealed off the centre of the so-called steel city to insulate global leaders from potentially rowdy protests surrounding a contentious G20 heads of government summit.
Law enforcement personnel walk near the site of the upcoming G20 Pittsburgh Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September 23, 2009. The G20 Pittsburgh Summit will be held on September 24 and 25. (REUTERS/Eric Thayer) Nearly 4,000 police and 2,000 national guard troops, plus 11 coastguard vessels, are on standby in Pittsburgh, where President Barack Obama will host talks on issues ranging from the environment to the global economic downturn and restrictions on bankers' pay. The city was chosen as a venue to showcase its recovery from disused smokestacks to hi-tech growth.
Welcome flags adorned the streets and a banner from one skyscraper read "jobs, good jobs, green jobs". Catholic and Anglican bishops have asked every church in the district to ring bells at midday tomorrow to mark prayers for the summit. At a 19th-century greenhouse in the city's botanical gardens, chefs began preparing for an eve-of-summit banquet showcasing local produce, organic foods and sustainable agriculture.
But many restaurants, schools and offices were shutting for the duration of the two-day summit. Scores of shops have boarded up their windows, wary of a constellation of protest groups. Even before the arrival of politicians, demonstrators pressing for healthcare reform, more funds for HIV/Aids treatment and opposing bank bailouts have marched on the G20 convention centre. A group called the G20 Resistance Project is calling for a "peoples' uprising", culminating in a mass march with the theme‚ "power from below, not impositions from above".
Officials say Pittsburgh is ready. Dan Onorato, chief executive of the local Allegheny County authority, said protestors "come with the turf" in hosting summits: "We view them as our guests and we welcome those who plan peaceful protests. But those who want to do damage to property will be dealt with."
Onorato said he hoped world leaders would leave with an impression of dynamism from a city known as the birthplace of the artist Andy Warhol and as the home of the food brand Heinz. "We want to show how we've remade ourselves and turned ourselves round from an old industrial town."
The bulk of the negotiations will take place on Friday , when 19 leaders of the world's biggest economic powers, including Britain, Australia, Japan and Russia, plus the president of the European Union, will gather at Pittsburgh's David L Lawrence convention centre. The US is calling for a rebalancing of the global economy, pressing rapidly growing economies such as India and China to increase public spending and curtail their vast budget surpluses.
President Obama will urge nations to resist the temptation to cut off economic stimulus packages prematurely. But he will come under pressure from Europe to impose caps on multi-million-pound Wall Street bonuses, blamed for encouraging reckless risk-taking and for contributing to the credit crunch.
To address climate change, the US wants countries to agree on a plan to phase out any remaining subsidies for power generated by fossil fuels, although developing nations such as China, Brazil and Russia are reluctant to agree to this. There will also be efforts to avert any repetition of the global financial meltdown through tighter financial regulation - an avenue which Germany's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, has accused Britain of avoiding: "There is clearly a lobby in London that wants to defend its competitive advantage tooth and nail."
Meanwhile, leaders' spouses including Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown will have a meal at Rosemont Farm, a working farm owned by the food heir Teresa Heinz. They will tour Pittsburgh's Andy the Warhol art museum and visit to a local music academy for performances by several stars including the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
A city of 313,000 people, Pittsburgh is spending $18m (£11m) on public safety. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that 27 ramps and streets leading into the central area, known as the golden triangle, will be blocked off. The US National Lawyers' Guild is sending 200 observers to watch the authorities' handling of protests, but tensions have already flared, with one group, Seeds of Peace, filing a lawsuit against the police for harassment.Seeds of Peace has accused the authorities of "illegal searches, vehicle seizures, raids and detentions", and has complained that police have repeatedly forced a van cooking food for demonstrators to move. One member said officers had even accused them of failing to have adequate local animal permits for pet dogs.
Several city-centre restaurants awere offering special G20 menus and some local businesses have vowed to carry on with business as usual. Larry Lagattuta, owner of an Italian bakery, Enrico Biscotti, said he hoped that activists would sample a biscuit before demonstrating: "There's an old Buddhist expression,: 'I stand here with my hands open.' We're ready for anything that happens, we're ready to welcome the world."
25 Comments so far
Show AllA municipal official says:
"...we welcome those who plan peaceful protests. But those who want to do damage to property will be dealt with."
"And if nobody wants to damage property, some of our guys dressed up in disaffected-youth drag are fully prepared to step up to the plate. Let the games begin."
My thoughts exactly, as I was reading that quote.
The peaceful protestors had their permits for a legal march denied, their camping permits denied, their food shipments intercepted, leaders and speakers preemptively arrested or jailed, their phones and e-mails hacked and anyone who matched a nebulous police 'profile' was harassed and intimidated.
The MSM has contributed to a pervasive atmosphere of paranoia by promoting the idea that all the protesters will be destructive black masked 'anarchists' (who in almost all recent cases have been proven to be police agent provocateurs'.
I can't wait until the fear factory comes to my hometown for the 2010 Winter Olympics. We are going to have the same security crackdown, with massive no-fly zones, an enforced emptying of the downtown core, draconian travel restrictions, forced placement of the embarrassing homeless, and combat troops fresh from Afghanistan posing as security.
I wonder if this is Mr. Obama's new direction for the world he went on about at the UN?
Walk in peace.
Chris Hedges says, "Resist or become serfs." But I question the efficacy of walking into the maw of the machine.
It is a fool that assaults an opponent at their point of strength. That is why guerilla warfare by definiton avoids that. It is why you kick boxers knees out, and stay on your feet striking with wrestlers. Achille's heals all.
So what is the system's Achilles heal?
It's not weak face to face, hand to hand.
The System is Weak ideologically. It's Achille's heal is this: It's true nature being exposed for what it is to it's middle class victims, the beast being unmasked.
For now, words are our greatest potential weapon. Not violence or protest face-offs with the National Guard. This is not the 60's where protesters would be covered by the media as protesters of war. Now they'd be portrayed as criminals, against Freedom et al, and sad, that would fly.
A charismatic person needs to sieze a microphone by any means and address his fellow victim-countrymen. How?
azjoe-You've been reading my mind. I pray for the protestors though.
odoco
Read about the St. Paul police reaction to protests during the 2008 RNC convention - same tactics, same collusion between feds and state police, same pre-emptive tactics to jail those that 'might' break the law (domestic retention w/o habeas corpus or any type of due process), etc.
Go to Minnesota Independent or MinnPost and do archival research - understand the system.
Let me get this straight:
Wear a gun or rifle to a protest - it's all good.
Rappel off a bridge to hang a sign - get arrested!?!
The hypocrisy is blatant. People are made to walk through metal detectors at the annual School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning Georgia. The protest is held off the base.
Quote from the article:
"The US is calling for a rebalancing of the global economy, pressing rapidly growing economies such as India and China to increase public spending and curtail their vast budget surpluses."
Translation: "You're supposed to be bankrupt like us! How dare you practice responsible economics!"
And this they call "rebalancing."
I agree with the idea, if you don't have rowdies, we will supply them, so we can justify the brutality that G-20 protesters are met with.
As opposed to Tea Baggers and their protests. (with guns)
The cops in this picture look very welcoming indeed. And the juxtaposition of the sign and the cops is not at all incongruous. I am sure the protesters will receive a warm welcome.
Pittsburgh, September 23, 1980, 29 years ago, saw the last concert ever by Bob Marley. It was the "Uprising Tour", and "Redemption Song" was the last song he sang, (though some say he sang others during a second encore).
29 years and so few have freed themselves from "mental slavery", if anything the propaganda machine is running better than ever.
Get your Sudecon:
http://www.defensedevices.com/suddecwip.html
If you've been sprayed, pouring milk in your eyes is a cheap substitute.
Bea writes:
"The cops in this picture look very welcoming indeed. And the juxtaposition of the sign and the cops is not at all incongruous."
I'm sure the Reuters photographer, Eric Thayer, knew the irony of it. As I write this NPR is reporting that police there are breaking up protests using pepper gas. I was pepper-gassed in the Sixties. It is quite painful.
-30-
So far it hasn't been too bad. I've been watching it on TV. The media is freaking out because a few windows have been broken. Oh my.
"Welcome flags adorned the streets and a banner from one skyscraper read "jobs, good jobs, green jobs".
Where was the sign that read: "Screw-job"?
yes azjoe your right on point. i did wing chun for years.
the premise is this. start at the ankles work your way to
the knees and kick the head when its at knee level always
have balance. the premise of all responses here is of
incredulity. jethro tullamore you have seen this one over
and over.its like fight fire with fire and if there's no
fire lets start one. problem is soon there's going to be
a fire they will never be able to put out and hopefully
the world will catch too. it will be the return to
freedom! when the national guard has to face off with their
family do you think they'll shoot? right us'er i was at
the repug.protests in 2004. get in a cage to protest in a
free speech zone. bet that was karl rove behind that
one! at the end of the day this is the true test of a
democracy and its sad to say but clubbing by the pigs
is american as apple pie. does anyone know the motto
of police departments in america? its not to protect and
serve but rather we may may be dumb but were mean!
tttt, cop's motto; To protect the Rich and serve arrest warrants on the poor.
But it's their gut understanding of THIS that is most powerful: To cops, Justice means Just Us. As it should to the oppressed.
They will not shoot us when we mass as one. You are right. Tehran '79.
I was flipping through some channels today, and heard Cindy Sheehan on Alex Jones' show around 3:30-4:00 pm EST. Apparently she was in Pittsburgh for the protests and from one of Jones' live reporter's feeds said the government thugs had both sonic weapons and microwave weapons deployed. They used the sonic high-decibel weapon on some of the protesters (not on her but others in another area), but according to her, they didn't use the microwave weapon.
Not yet anyway.
Here's a write-up and video from Jones' website: http://www.infowars.com/military-attacks-american-citizens-with-sound-weapons-tear-gas-at-g20/
Did you guys see what the fucking oinkers did to this poor girl?
http://www.wpxi.com/video/21110533
Give me one of those fuckers one on one, no armor, weapons, or legalities. They're picking on college kids with small builds, WHO AREN'T DOING A FUCKING THING!!!
Watched the video. Twice.
Saw what/who started the confrontation.
It was a police officer shoving the girl hard in the back so she fell of her bike as she was following orders to disperse. SHe reacts understandable, using her bike in a manner which is taught by women's self defense classes to get her attacker away from her.
Police response is nightstick held horizontally smashed into her face at jaw/jose level. Typical police tactic taught internationally. Usual police procedure from there on.
The police were there to provoke a confrontation, not provide security.
Walk in peace.
"Police response is nightstick held horizontally smashed into her face at jaw/jose level. Typical police tactic taught internationally. Usual police procedure from there on."
BTW, they're learning these tactics from the well-trained Israelis who practice and perfect them daily on the Palestinians.
Three differences between U.S. & other Banana Republics:
1. The tide is turning and the people are winning in some South American nations.
2. U.S. imports its bananas.
3. Uh... ?
Fascism at its best!