My friend Eva wrote this about her experience at Schenley Plaza on Friday night at the end of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, 2009:
I went to Schenley plaza at 10pm on Friday out of curiosity. There were rumors of a hip hop caucus concert (canceled) and of a peaceful gathering for those who opposed unnecessary police brutality of innocent people the night before. I promised my parents I would leave immediately if it became riotous in any way. When I arrived, I was shocked to see the state of things—they were peaceful. There were maybe a few hundred people consisting of students, reporters, and even some families. The inhabitants of the park were hanging out peacefully playing duck duck goose, and talking. I was ecstatic at the idea that so many people could come together and make a statement by being peaceful. Then, one guy with a megaphone came around and I thought, " Oh no, this is going to be trouble." But his message was the most beautiful I have ever heard: He was saying that this is not a protest, but a gathering to attest to the fact that we have first amendment rights to gather and speak freely, that we do not condone violence by anarchists OR by the police. He asked gathered citizens not to fight, not to protest, and not to fight back if the police unlawfully attacked them. He asked police to consider the fact that we are not enemies, that we are both human beings, and that we both want peace. He asked them to merely consider their actions when they use violence on innocents in the pursuit of "peace and safety for the people”, when they are really acting on the orders, and for, the elite. (His name is Luke Rudkowski from we are change, and I believe that he is still in jail.) I thought things were going great. It was peaceful, and I believed that his words were truly resonating with the Police officers. The police started to move, and a few of us cheered because we thought that the police had received our message, and had decided that their presence was not needed. We were wrong. Nobody provoked it, nobody threatened any violence, and the worst confrontation I heard was a group of students chanting "We, the people, have the right to assemble." Apparently we don't because when I turned around, I saw that we were encircled, surrounded on all sides of the park by the cops. Some had unmuzzled dogs, snapping at us, looking ready to kill. Others had their hands on their guns, looking ready to shoot. My friend said, "What happened? What is going on?" At this point, there was an air of panic within the park. Of course I was scared, but there was also a sense of calm within me, because I foolishly believed that they would not attack if nothing violent occurred. The first thing I heard was the LRAD system, a piercing noise that hurt my ears (Apparently this is the first case of its use in the US). People began to move, and the police made a slight opening. Following the high pitched noise was an automated police message: I declare this an unlawful assembly. You must disperse immediately. It does not matter what your purpose is. If you do not disperse immediately you will be subject to arrest or other police action. Immediately after this message was played, two smoke bombs went off on both sides of the park-- and we ran. People were yelling "WALK!" And as my friend dragged me running I said, "We should just walk, we are not doing anything wrong, we are following orders. They can't do anything." Let’s just say I am glad that I ran. My friends and I stopped when we were about a block behind the line of dispersing people on Forbes avenue, and thus a safe distance from the police line moving in from bigelow. I watched those who did not disperse quick enough (they didn’t run for their lives) be subject to further gas bombs, rubber bullets, police beating, and a few arrests. The arrests were seemingly random: there was no pattern, and no apparent reasoning. I thought I was safe until I turned around and saw that there was a police line on the other side of us, barricading us in. At this point, I ran up Craig Street and was walking on the sidewalks with no more than ten people. Then an unmarked van drove by, and some police officers dressed in full riot gear jumped out. I was told to move, had a gun pointed at me, and was subject to mace, although it wasn't directly in my face. As I ran up, somebody who I was next to was pushed to the ground and beaten by a policeman. I ran into a line of cops who were yelling MOVE quite rudely and mixed with profanity so I said, ”I just want to go peacefully home, where do I go?" They pointed me back to where I came from, where now there was another line of police barricading us in. We were trapped. I am glad my friends are more lucid in times of distress, because they noticed that there was an alleyway, a golden glimmer of hope. We ran down the alleyway and finally escaped, each one of furious, terrified, and not able to process what had just happened. The next twenty minutes are a blur to me: my mind raced in every direction as I tried to recontemplate everything I had believed in my life up to this point. Tears were involved. I did not feel safe from the police intimidation and brutality until we walked all the way to Shadyside. At this point I regressed to middle school and called my Dad, a Pitt professor, to pick my friends and I up to give us a ride home. I slept at my family's home that night, because every block that leads to my apartment in south Oakland was barricaded off by police, and I wasn't about to go walk into that situation again. I am lucky to have family in Pittsburgh. I am lucky to not have been arrested. I am lucky to not have lasting physical damage. I did have a splitting headache the next day, but who really knows the cause. It could have been the LRAD, it could have been the excessive gas, or it just could have been the fact that I couldn’t sleep or eat properly for the next 24 hours because my mind was not able to process the events. This experience damaged me. Fortunately, not the physical damage that some of my peers had to endure (How can you possibly justified sending a student to the intensive care unit for 17 hours who was unarmed, defenseless, and not posing any threat?) But I underwent severe mental trauma. This experience broke down some fundamental truths I have believed (or tried to) my whole life. I thought the police were there to protect us. I thought that here in the United States we had civil rights, which we fought so hard to obtain. In the past when I heard of police violence, I always tried as hard as I could to believe the reasoning of the police, to believe what they did was justified to some extent. They were just trying to keep the peace. When I heard that people were not able to exercise their civil liberties, I tried my hardest to believe that it was necessary, that these people were posing a real threat to society. But now I realize that those excuses are just that: excuses. Friday night at Schenley Plaza, a few hundred people gathered peacefully. None had weapons, none were violent, none were provoking any violence, none hinted harm to any person or establishment, none were even protesting! Friday night at Schenley Plaza, over a thousand police officers gathered violently. They had terrifying and dehumanizing weapons, they were unbelievably and unnecessarily violent, they provoked and spoke derogatorily to many citizens, and they beat down and physically damaged defenseless law abiding people. Now who is facing charges? The people who were cruelly attacked for no apparent reason? It is shocking to me that such a large scale blatant attack on our civil rights and constitution can be ignored. We deserve answers. We deserve justice. Something must be done.
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For a news article about the incident, and other incidents and arrests during the G20 in 2009, see this article. Keep in mind that Friday night, the G20 was over, the world leaders that the police were supposed to protect had all left, and Pittsburgh was left with a lot of frustrated young people and a huge buildup of police force that had no real purpose anymore. The police presence in Pittsburgh that week was unreal. Schenley Plaza, where the worst repression took place, is basically the University of Pittsburgh's front yard. It's a public park, and should be fine as a place for citizens to peacefully assemble. I wasn't there that Friday, but every description I've heard of what happen lines up with what Eva said - the police surrounded a group of people, then demanded that they disperse... which was impossible, as they were surrounded. Then the police said that since they hadn't dispersed - and remember, they COULD NOT disperse - it was open season for arresting, chasing, and beating people. So fucked up. The only good thing that police did that night was that the university police prevented other police officers from chasing students into the dorms. So, good job university police for standing up to injustice and protecting your students.
Sorry for the long block of text, but it's her writing and I wouldn't want to edit it by adding paragraphs where she might not have intended them. I feel it's powerful as is, and hope that it wakes a few people up to the reality we live in. Who knows? Maybe a law enforcement person will see it and realize that "just following orders" is no excuse.
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