Having lived in the Washington, D.C. area for the better part of the last 10 years, I’ve attended my share of protests, though, again as a resident of the Beltway, I’ve spent far more time trying to avoid them and the traffic nightmares they spawn. Among the various classes of protesters—pro-lifers, environmentalists, anti-war activists, and now Tea Partiers—the most destructive are easily the anti-globalization/anarchist protesters. So when police clashed with anti-globalization protesters last weekend in Pittsburgh, one could assume that most altercations represented justified police responses to overzealous protesters.
But a number of disturbing images, videos, and witness accounts have come out of Pittsburgh, as well as from similar high-stakes political events in recent years, that reveal the disquieting ease with which authorities are willing to crush dissent—and at the very sorts of events where the right to dissent is the entire purpose of protecting free speech. That is, events where influential policymakers meet to make high-level decisions with far-reaching consequences.
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While reporting from the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this 24-25th of September, We Are Change were specifically targeted during their efforts to report accurately while observing the wrong doings of both police and provocateurs whose actions were not only highly illegal but immoral and cancerous to a free society.
No longer the stuff of disturbing futuristic fantasies, an arsenal of “crowd control munitions,” including one that reportedly made its debut in the U.S., was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week’s G-20 protests.
Nearly 200 arrests were made and civil liberties groups charged the many thousands of police (most transported on Port Authority buses displaying “PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD”), from as far away as Arizona and Florida with overreacting…and they had plenty of weaponry with which to do it.
Bean bags fired from shotguns, CS (tear) gas, OC (Oleoresin Capsicum) spray, flash-bang grenades, batons and, according to local news reports, for the first time on the streets of America, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD).
Mounted in the turret of an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), I saw the LRAD in action twice in the area of 25th, Penn and Liberty Streets of Lawrenceville, an old Pittsburgh neighborhood. Blasting a shrill, piercing noise like a high-pitched police siren on steroids, it quickly swept streets and sidewalks of pedestrians, merchants and journalists and drove residents into their homes, but in neither case were any demonstrators present. The APC, oversized and sinister for a city street, together with lines of police in full riot gear looking like darkly threatening Michelin Men, made for a scene out of a movie you didn’t want to be in.
The G20 in Pittsburgh showed us how pitifully fearful our leaders have become.
What no terrorist could do to us, our own leaders did.
Out of fear of the possibility of a terrorist attack, authorities militarize our towns, scare our people away, stop daily life and quash our constitutional rights.
For days, downtown Pittsburgh, home to the G20, was a turned into a militarized, people-free ghost town. Sirens screamed day and night.
Helicopters crisscrossed the skies. Gunboats sat in the rivers. The skies were defended by Air Force jets. Streets were barricaded by huge cement blocks and fencing. Bridges were closed with National Guard across the entrances. Public transportation was stopped downtown. Amtrak train service was suspended for days.
Please see our collection of videos from independent sources who were at the G-20 in Pittsburgh. (Post 9/11 Police State Aggression Grows by Leaps Each Year)-ed
Activists with the Thomas Merton Center and other groups today blasted the police response to a Friday night protest in Oakland following the G-20 summit, calling it a “military-style occupation” that resulted in the gassing and arrest of dozens of bystanders, including students and journalists.
During a press conference at the center’s Garfield headquarters, some activists threatened lawsuits against the city and placed responsibility for the confrontation with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and top public safety officials.
“I’ll say it very bluntly: The mayor should be fired. The city council should hold his feet to the fire,” said David Meieran, an organizer with Three Rivers Climate Convergence.
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) — World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the U.S. shouldn’t take for granted the dollar’s status as the world’s main reserve currency.
In remarks set for delivery tomorrow, Zoellick said the “next upheaval” in the international economic order is under way as emerging nations gain greater influence.
“The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar’s place as the world’s predominant reserve currency,” according to excerpts released by the World Bank.
The recent show of force in Pittsburgh was not the most brutal in America, but it was the most recent. Many scenes remind me of 1930 Germany and rounding up certain citizens for camps. The scenes may boil your water a little bit, but that’s OK. We need to know what is happening, and it aint pretty. We must remember in the end though that a violent revolution will not work against the brute force and weopons that are on display. We must reach eceryone, including the police and military, with a message of compassion nd love. Reminding them that we are their neighbors, friends, and family is a good place to start; maybe for ourselves as well…If this inter-friction keeps progressing with anger and hatred, were doomed. -ed Click below for the videos : Current news under this post.
Posted by Brian 
