Eye On Pittsburgh G-20 Summit Meeting

[Irobot]

Obama Speaking @ G-20 LIVE STREAM - g20 feed
http://snardfarker.ning.com/video/g20-live-video-stream-protest
2nd feed added

[Irobot]

here
http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/live-g20-video-stream-feed-3

[Freeski]

Obama Speaking

Woo Hoo!!!

[ES 2012]

News feeds are filtering through the matrix about the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, with videos of protesters being blasted by sound cannons and police lines marching like storm-troopers toward an unarmed crowd. Declared an unlawful assembly by the police because they don't have a permit, the protesters are being subjected to the same militant techniques used in Iraq by the U.S. military and its allies. That's right America, you don't have the right to assembly unless it is approved by the state and if you attempt to protest without permission.... you may be treated like an "enemy combatant". These aren't terrorists or militant insurgents in some foreign land..... they are U.S. citizens trying to exercise their right to free speech, without permission from big brother. In order to protect the leaders of the world from a few hundred protesters, US security forces turned piercing sound weapons on U.S. citizens invoking widespread criticism.

Sonic weapons or long-range acoustic devices have been used by the US military overseas, notably against Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents. However officials from Pittsburgh claim that it was the first time "sound cannon" had been used publicly. The sonic weapons are highly effective for crowd control, more effective than controversial kettling tactics used against G20 protesters in London, and some fear the sounds emitted are loud enough to damage the eardrums of the targets and possibly even cause fatal aneurysms.

It seems that it is OK to bring loaded weapons to a rally against healthcare reform, but a march against the New World Order is treated much differently. These police and military resources aren't being used to protect national security, freedom, or the constitution..... they are being employed to protect the worlds leaders and the oligarchy that controls them.

With only a few hundred protesters to mark the opening day of the summit of world leaders, the military and police were taking no chances. One reporter from an MSNBC video can be Quoted as saying, "..... they've got riot fences that have lined the sidewalks, helicopters, gunboats, humvees, they've pulled out obviously an arsenal of .. uh... equipment and individuals to protect those world leaders there and, as you pointed out, to keep them away from the protesters.. uh... city officials also announce according to reports 1000 jail cells ready for any lawbreakers....."

G20 Protests on MSNBC 9/24/09 Pittsburgh, PA - MSNBC video

Tear gas/sonic used on G20 Pittsburgh protesters - MSNBC video

Military uses Sonic Weapon and Tear Gas on Protestors at g20 Pittsburgh - CNN video

G 20 Pittsburgh Military Police Using Sonic Weapons Against American Citizens - protestor video

Sound Cannon Used Against US Citizens in Pittsburgh G20 Summit - Article/blog with video links

SNAP ANALYSIS: New world economic order takes shape at G20 - background info

Military Attacks American Citizens With Sound Weapons & Tear Gas At G20 - Article/blog with video links

[Irobot]

THANK YOU ES 2012

IT APPEARS IT WAS EVEN CRAZIER LAST NIGHT. THE PIGS ATTACKED THE UNIV OF PITT AGAIN, DETAINING MORE STUDENTS JUST CAUGHT IN THE WRONG PLACE.

STAY TUNED, MORE VIDEO COMING .

[Irobot]

Police Arrest 110 In 2nd Oakland Protest

VIDEO
http://kdka.com/local/g20/Schenley.plaza.rally.2.1209600.html

After thousands of protestors marched peacefully through the streets of Pittsburgh, more people gathered at Schenley Plaza Friday night.

Forbes Avenue was shut down as hundreds of police officers dressed in riot gear marched down the street.

According to police, 400 people gathered and 110 were arrested around 10:30 p.m.

They told the crowd to disperse.  Once again, officers used what appeared to be OC spray near the William Pitt Union.

The people behind the rally were upset with how police handled their gathering Thursday night and billed Friday night's event as a Police Resistance Rally.

"We're all very angry.  I saw some of the events that unfolded last night - we want them to know we're not going to take this, we can't have them hurting our peers, hurting innocent bystanders because they're overreacting to a situation," one protestor said.

Thursday, store fronts were vandalized and more than 40 people were arrested.

"Because they smashed up Pamela's I'm not going to reconsider my viewpoints on anarchy," one student said.

At the University of Pittsburgh, students were reaction to the events of Thursday night.

"I feel like a lot of the people there were just students observing and then with the protestors and some students getting too rowdy," Luke Rifugiato said.

The university released a statement blaming a handful of people who wanted to be destructive and urged students to use good judgement and common sense.

[sociostudent]

I couldn't find the thread on this, so mods feel free to move this:
Hey, look: someone did an independent investigation of that "kidnapping" by the military police:
http://thecollegepolitico.com/the-truth-about-the-military-kidnapping-video-from-the-g-20/#more-1785

don't know if it's true or not, but it helps to have some more opinions on this.

We're moving into a weird phase of the NWO's plan, i think. The best way to describe it would probably be: "Psyops, Psyops, everywhere"....so, it's all well and good to be suspicious of things like this. The problem is, if/when it really DOES happen, is it going to be forgotten about/deemed a hoax or will people realize that it's actually real?

This kind of sh*t is what took down great countries in the past. Lets not let it happen here. Use discernment when investigating the nwo. Find out how they use psychological warfare to weaken the resolve of nations to the point where they'll put up with anything like China. And then expose their BS when they try to pull this kind of crap, ALONG with any confirmed disinformation about it.

[Irobot]

Gary Franchi update: Patriots are MIA from the G20

The following persons including Luke Rudkowski on the megaphone is MIA

MISSING! Need you help:
Phillip Figueiredo-Philadelphia, PA
Sam Logulo- Cincinatti, OH
Lee Lovino- Chicago, IL
Luke Rudkowski- Brooklyn, NY
Dan Panzella-Staten Island, NY

[Irobot]

Thugs Cops Take a Trophy - Arrested Student Manhandled for Pig Photo Op - G20 http://snardfarker.ning.com/video/thugs-cops-take-a-trophy

[Irobot]

We Are Change takes over the NBC Nightly News at the G-20 in Pittsburgh

http://snardfarker.ning.com/xn/detail/2649739:Video:106508

WEARECHANGE.COM HAS CONFIRMED ALL HAVE BEEN RELEASED!

[Berminator]

We Are Change takes over the NBC Nightly News at the G-20 in Pittsburgh

http://snardfarker.ning.com/xn/detail/2649739:Video:106508

WEARECHANGE.COM HAS CONFIRMED ALL HAVE BEEN RELEASED!

Thanks for updates.

[Freeski]

Thanks for updates.

Ditto!

[kidA]

I like what one of the authors said on his youtube videos:

"Where were the Tea Party Protesters for this event? I guess they don't consider Global Corps as big a threat as Healthcare. Or more to the point, FreedomWorks doesn't."

[Berminator]

We Are Change takes over the NBC Nightly News at the G-20 in Pittsburgh

http://snardfarker.ning.com/xn/detail/2649739:Video:106508

WEARECHANGE.COM HAS CONFIRMED ALL HAVE BEEN RELEASED!

Hey Irobot, you're vid is on Mike's site right now with a link
'Find more videos like this on 12.160Mhz '

www.whatreallyhappened.com


RAD.

[bigron]

Street Report from the G20


by Bill Quigley

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58355&hd=&size=1&l=e

September 27, 2009

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.

In many areas, there were armed police every 100 feet. Businesses closed. Schools closed. Tens of thousands were unable to work.

Four thousand police were on duty plus 2500 National Guard plus Coast Guard and Air Force and dozens of other security agencies. A thousand volunteers from other police forces were sworn in to help out.

Police were dressed in battle gear, bulky black ninja turtle outfits: helmets with clear visors, strapped on body armor, shin guards, big boots, batons, and long guns.

In addition to helicopters, the police had hundreds of cars and motorcycles , armored vehicles, monster trucks, small electric go-karts. There were even passenger vans screaming through town so stuffed with heavily armed ninja turtles that the side and rear doors remained open.

No terrorists showed up at the G20.

Since no terrorists showed up, those in charge of the heavily armed security forces chose to deploy their forces around those who were protesting.

Not everyone is delighted that 20 countries control 80% of the world’s resources. Several thousand of them chose to express their displeasure by protesting.

Unfortunately, the officials in charge thought that it was more important to create a militarized people-free zone around the G20 people than to allow freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or the freedom to protest.

It took a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU to get any major protest permitted anywhere near downtown Pittsburgh. Even then, the police "forgot" what was permitted and turned people away from areas of town. Hundreds of police also harassed a bus of people who were giving away free food — repeatedly detaining the bus and searching it and its passengers without warrants.

Then a group of young people decided that they did not need a permit to express their human and constitutional rights to freedom. They announced they were going to hold their own gathering at a city park and go down the deserted city streets to protest the G20. Maybe 200 of these young people were self-described anarchists, dressed in black, many with bandanas across their faces. The police warned everyone these people were very scary. My cab driver said the anarchist spokesperson looked like Harry Potter in a black hoodie. The anarchists were joined in the park by hundreds of other activists of all ages, ultimately one thousand strong, all insisting on exercising their right to protest.

This drove the authorities crazy.

Battle dressed ninja turtles showed up at the park and formed a line across one entrance. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Armored vehicles gathered.

The crowd surged out of the park and up a side street yelling, chanting, drumming, and holding signs. As they exited the park, everyone passed an ice cream truck that was playing "It’s a small world after all." Indeed.

Any remaining doubts about the militarization of the police were dispelled shortly after the crowd left the park. A few blocks away the police unveiled their latest high tech anti-protestor toy. It was mounted on the back of a huge black truck. The Pittsburgh-Gazette described it as Long Range Acoustic Device designed to break up crowds with piercing noise. Similar devices have been used in Fallujah, Mosul and Basra Iraq. The police backed the truck up, told people not to go any further down the street and then blasted them with piercing noise.

The crowd then moved to other streets. Now they were being tracked by helicopters. The police repeatedly tried to block them from re-grouping ultimately firing tear gas into the crowd injuring hundreds including people in the residential neighborhood where the police decided to confront the marchers. I was treated to some of the tear gas myself and I found the Pittsburgh brand to be spiced with a hint of kelbasa. Fortunately, I was handed some paper towels soaked in apple cider vinegar which helped fight the tears and cough a bit. Who would have thought?

After the large group broke and ran from the tear gas, smaller groups went into commercial neighborhoods and broke glass at a bank and a couple of other businesses. The police chased and the glass breakers ran. And the police chased and the people ran. For a few hours.

By day the police were menacing, but at night they lost their cool. Around a park by the University of Pittsburgh the ninja turtles pushed and shoved and beat and arrested not just protestors but people passing by. One young woman reported she and her friend watched Grey’s Anatomy and were on their way back to their dorm when they were cornered by police. One was bruised by police baton and her friend was arrested. Police shot tear gas, pepper spray, smoke canisters, and rubber bullets. They pushed with big plastic shields and struck with batons.

The biggest march was Friday. Thousands of people from Pittsburgh and other places protested the G20. Since the court had ruled on this march, the police did not confront the marchers. Ninja turtled police showed up in formation sometimes and the helicopters hovered but no confrontations occurred.

Again Friday night, riot clad police fought with students outside of the University of Pittsburgh. To what end was just as unclear as the night before.

Ultimately about 200 were arrested, mostly in clashes with the police around the University.

The G20 leaders left by helicopter and limousine.

Pittsburgh now belongs again to the people of Pittsburgh. The cement barricades were removed, the fences were taken down, the bridges and roads were opened. The gunboats packed up and left. The police packed away their ninja turtle outfits and tear gas and rubber bullets. They don’t look like military commandos anymore. No more gunboats on the river. No more sirens all the time. No more armored vehicles and ear splitting machines used in Iraq. On Monday the businesses will open and kids will have to go back to school. Civil society has returned.

It is now probably even safe to exercise constitutional rights in Pittsburgh once again.

The USA really showed those terrorists didn’t we?

Bill Quigley represented Pere Jean-Juste many times in Haiti along with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Port au Prince and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Bill is on leave from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans serving as Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He can be reached at: quigley77@gmail.com.





 

[bigron]

The U.S. Creeps Closer to a Police State

by Shamus Cooke

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58367&hd=&size=1&l=e

September 27, 2009 - Workers Action.



When word first arrived that the G-20 would be meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, activists started to gear up to organize protest demonstrations. Events like this are what freedom of speech is made for. What better occasion to protest than a meeting of the world’s 20 top leaders — most of them deservedly hated — where they will be imposing policy on billions of people worldwide?

The majority of protesters consisted of labor and community groups; they encountered an army of police…literally. The New York Times paints an intimidating picture:


"…the police were out in force, patrolling on bicycles, foot and horseback, by river and by air … protesters trying to march toward the convention center…encountered roaming squads of police officers carrying plastic shields and batons. The police fired a sound cannon (a new weapon) that emitted shrill beeps … then threw tear gas canisters that released clouds of white smoke and stun grenades that exploded with sharp flashes of light." Rubber bullets were used in a separate incident.


And:


"Riot fences lined the sidewalks. Police helicopters, gunboats and Humvees darted to and fro. City officials announced they had up to 1,000 jail cells ready after county officials freed up additional space last week by releasing 300 people who had been arrested on minor probation violations." (September 25, 2009).


What threat required such a military-like response? None was given. The New York Times article and many like it imply that the mere existence of marching protesters warrants a colossal reaction. Of course the presence of "anarchists" is used to further scare readers into accepting such foolishness, as if this breed of protester is especially lethal (the vast majority of anarchists are like all protesters — they do not attack the police or anybody else, though some protesters respond aggressively when being confronted with the above mentioned police weapons).


The G-20 police presence is not a terrible surprise to anyone who has attended a legitimate, community-organized protest over the years. Non-provoked usage of brutal weaponry is becoming commonplace; the police-enforced use of "free speech zones" at protests — small areas surrounded by fences in some cases — is nothing new.


But the staggering police presence at the G-20 confirms that the stakes have been raised. Two turning points that deserve special attention — since the mainstream media continues to ignore them — are last years Democratic and Republican National Conventions. In both cases incredible abuses of police powers were witnessed, with the Republican Convention (RNC) showcasing the most extreme cases of state repression.


At the RNC the unlawful tactic of mass arrests were used when, in separate incidents, a public park and bridge were surrounded by police, trapping everyone in the dragnet. The documentary, Terrorizing Dissent, has excellent footage of both episodes; Police brutality was also a regular occurrence at the RNC — including much unnecessary usage of pepper spray and tasers — while occurring alongside an even more troubling episode.


The group now referred to as the RNC 8 consists of eight community organizers potentially facing years in jail for helping organize protests at the RNC. The original charge was the Orwellian Conspiracy to Riot in the second degree in Furtherance of Terrorism (other terrorism-related charges were later added). These terrorism charges were the first ever usage of the Patriot Act toward political activists. And although the terrorism provisions of the charges have since been dropped, due to public pressure, the attempt to equate terrorism with activism has incredible, non-accidental implications for the future.


When the Patriot Act was first enacted, there was no shortage of writers and activists warning about the potential of misuse. These predictions have been fully confirmed. Both the Military Commissions Act and the Patriot Act have created what many believe to be the framework for a full-fledge police state, with the initial flurry of abuses creating a series of dangerous precedents.


One famous precedent is the so-called Telecom scandal, where tele-communication corporations colluded with the Bush-controlled National Security Agency to illegally spy on an unknown number of innocent people. No one has gone to jail for this. Indeed, as a Senator, Obama was one of many Democrats who supported Bush’s telecom immunity bill, which excuses those who broke the law while creating new powers to make spying on Americans legal.


Equally outrageous is the Military Commissions Act, created under Bush to destroy a fundamental democratic right: habeas corpus, or due process. This right says that the government cannot jail a person unless there is proof of crimes committed, while also giving that person a chance to challenge these charges in a legal court with a jury.


Bush created a separate category of person called an "enemy combatant," which he claimed was too dangerous to be treated constitutionally. An "enemy combatant" can be tried in a military court with secret or no evidence; or they can be jailed forever without even the symbolic military trial. Of course, it is only a hop and a skip away for political activists charged with terrorist crimes to be considered "enemy combatants" or "domestic terrorists."


Obama continues to uphold Bush’s destruction of due process. Obama has said publicly that many so-called enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay will be held "indefinitely" without being tried for their alleged crimes. Supposedly, they are "the worst of the worst." If this is true then evidence should be produced to prove it, since anyone can accuse anybody of the most heinous crimes. Without evidence, however, such accusations correctly fall on deaf ears. But no more. Now, accusations of "terrorist activities" warrant life sentences. No crime need be committed, only a vague intention — even if such intentions were formed by the suggestions of an FBI informant and are impossible to implement. The media blares these absurd "terrorist plots" as facts, and the rationale behind the destruction of civil liberties is re-enforced.


It must not be forgotten that many of the "crimes" Guantanamo Bay inmates are being accused of are merely acts of resistance to the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, something they have every right to do.


The grossly illegal Guantanamo Bay is not being closed down like Obama promised, but moved. The equally illegal Bagram air base in Afghanistan is getting an upgrade, this according to The Independent:


"The air base is about to undergo a $60 [million] (£42m) expansion that will double its size, meaning it can house five times as many prisoners as remain at Guantanamo." (February 22, 2009).


Not only will Bagram continue to be an institution of terror, but also some analysts estimate that there remain 18,000 people held worldwide in foreign U.S. facilities — so-called black sites — with no legal rights. The absence of even Red Cross observation at these prisons insures that "harsh interrogations" (torture) will remain a regular habit.


The above abuses of the Patriot Act have trickled down from high-profile terrorism cases (some who have made confessions under torture), to regular usage against alleged gang members, drug dealers and immigrants.


For example, one section of the Patriot Act gives police the power to search people’s home secretly without notifying the homeowner — called "sneak and peeks," a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment. The logic again was that "special powers" were needed to track down "terrorists." The Huffington Post reported, "Only three of the 763 "sneak-and-peek" requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases… Sixty-five percent were drug cases." (September 23, 2009).


The illegal entry and searching of immigrant’s homes — or anyone suspected of being an immigrant -- is widely known by the Latino community and continues to include the terror-inducing tactics of pre-dawn raids with guns drawn.


Once anti-constitutional behavior is applied to alleged terrorists, and extended to immigrants and people suspected of being gang members or drug dealers, such police behavior becomes normalized, and can then be easily expanded to all people accused of being "criminals." Police are widely known to consider political activists, protesters, and striking workers as criminal types, beliefs encouraged by the mainstream media.


Which brings us to why? Why does the destruction of democratic rights that accelerated under Bush continue with Obama? With every political "why" question one must first answer: who benefits?


In this case the benefiting parties are the giant corporations that dominate politics in the U.S. The people steering these companies had good foresight: they saw that the global capitalist economy necessitated a race to the bottom for workers' living standards. As U.S. corporations faced stiffer competition abroad for international markets, wages and benefits for U.S. workers would have to shrink, especially when U.S. corporations were investing heavily in emerging economies — China, India, etc. — for their slave wages.


U.S. corporate executives also understood that China became a police state out of necessity, so that its dollar-a-day workers could be brought into line (U.S. corporate investment rose sharply after the Tiananmen Square massacre). The trend of U.S. workers' wages leads logically to similar conclusions.


The creation of NAFTA to extend the dominance of U.S. corporations to Mexico and Canada would also have predictably negative effects on workers' living standards. Now, with two unpopular wars taking place and a third on the way (Pakistan) to further extend the profit margins of U.S. corporations, a breaking point is nearing.


Public money is being used to bail out banks and wage foreign wars while the recession continues to destroy jobs and drive down wages. This unpopular policy is viewed as a necessity for U.S. corporations, and Obama has no intention of reversing course. The police-state foundation created by Bush and continued under Obama is a stern warning to the U.S. working class to accept our fate or face dire consequences. It is already a fact that many people are too afraid of police repression to attend a protest, just as some workers are too afraid to be on a picket line during a strike.


Ultimately, a real democracy cannot function where there exists tremendous inequalities in wealth, where large sections of the population are in poverty. This is why democracies are not viable in poor countries: the super-rich use their power over the state — including dictatorships and mass repression — to crush social movements that challenge the status quo, as we are witnessing today in Honduras. The same dynamic is being created in the United States, where the vast majority of people are clamoring for real change, while those in the two-party system are using all means available to keep their rotten system in place.


Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action.

 

[bigron]

Police Use Painful New Weapon on G20 Protesters

This technology has been deployed in Iraq as an "anti-insurgent weapon" -- it could easily be used as a torture tool.

By Allison Kilkenny, True/Slant
Posted on September 28, 2009, Printed on September 28, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142921/

Pittsburgh police demonstrated the latest in crowd control techniques on protesters when they used "sound cannons" to blast the ears of citizens near the G-20 meeting of world economic leaders. City officials said this was the first time such sound blasters, also known as "sound weapons," were used publicly.

Lavonnie Bickerstaff of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police uses benign language like "sound amplifiers," and "long-range acoustic device" to explain the new weapons in an attempt to sanitize what is essentially a painful weapon that leaves no visible marks on its victims. The mob utilized a similar tactic on snitches when they would beat everywhere except the face. If victims have no outward bruises to show, the world is less likely to believe their stories of assault and harassment.

Unlike aerosol hand-grenades, pepper spray, and rubber bullets (all traditional methods of protest suppression also used at the G-20 protests,) the damage from sound cannons is entirely internal, and can only be preserved on video, but even then, the deafening noise cannot be fully appreciated unless one hears it in person.

(Footage of the sound cannons in action can be seen/heard below. It’s clear from these videos that the extremely loud, high-pitched noise causes pain.)

The "long range acoustic device (LRAD)" is designed for long-range communication and acts as an "unmistakable warning," according to the American Technology Corporation (ATC,) which develops the instruments. "The LRAD basically is the ability to communicate clearly from 300 meters to 3 kilometers" (nearly 2 miles), said Robert Putnam of American Technology’s media and investor relations during an interview with MSNBC. "It’s a focused output. What distinguishes it from other communications tools out there is its ability to be heard clearly and intelligibly at a distance, unlike bullhorns."

Except, police aren’t trying to send a distress call to allies 2 miles away. They’re literally blasting this extreme decibel of noise directly into the ears of protesters (or any unwitting citizens) standing mere feet from the cannons. Depending on the mode of LRAD, it can blast a maximum sound of 145 to 151 decibels — equal to a gunshot — within a 3-foot (one meter) range, according to ATC. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that permanent hearing loss can result from sounds at about 110 to 120 decibels in short bursts or even just 75 decibels if exposure lasts for long periods.

But there is a volume knob, Putnam notes, so its output can be less than max, purportedly to give us comfort in the knowledge that deafening citizens is left to the discretion of power-hungry police. On the decibel scale, an increase of 10 (say, from 70 to 80) means that a sound is 10 times more intense. Normal traffic noise can reach 85 decibels, reports MSNBC, but these sound cannons cannot be compared to standing beside a busy New York City road.

The BBC reported in 2005 that the "shrill sound of an LRAD at its loudest sounds something like a domestic smoke alarm, ATC says, but at 150 decibels, it is the aural equivalent to standing 30m away from a roaring jet engine and can cause major hearing damage if misused."

This technology has been deployed in Iraq as an "anti-insurgent weapon," and the sonic weaponry is also being used on protesters in Honduras. Seattle Weekly reports that this weapon could easily be used as a torture tool if one doesn’t already think this is its only use.

Sonic weaponry is now being deployed domestically to put a chill on free speech. We’re told this is the "humane" way to deal with protesters, but it’s really just a convenient way to suppress citizens without the messy aftereffects of having to explain bullet holes to reporters. A bunch of protesters complaining about ruptured ear drums doesn’t make for dramatic news.

Footage of the sound cannons in action:


 


VISIT PAGE FOR VIDEOS, THANKS

 

 



© 2009 True/Slant All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142921/

[bigron]

Pittsburgh Police Riot, Attack Students

"The only figures breaking any laws on that calm campus were the cops themselves."

By Staff, AlterNet
Posted on September 26, 2009, Printed on September 28, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142912/

The video in the window to your right was comes to us from John Ennis. The reader who sent it our way writes:

As you'll see, the students were (a) not numerous, and (b) not really doing much of anything, but sort of hanging out. And yet the cops were suited up for heavy combat (in some galaxy far, far away), and came down hard on.... nothing. They lobbed gas grenades, dragged people off, etc., as if there were a riot going on. But the only figures breaking any laws on that calm campus were the cops themselves.
Watch :

G20 Police State 12 - SHOCKING! G20 2009 Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RlVKgIfqsk&feature=player_embedded

© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142912/

[ridebmx]

can somebody please pm me  the videos of the riot cops symphony of traitorness?

i want videos of them beating their shields and moving like braindead stormtroopers

these videos need to go viral!

wake the sheeple!

[bigron]

Robocops Employ Scary Crowd-Stopping Technology at Pittsburgh Protests

An arsenal of "crowd control munitions," was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week's G-20 protests.

By Mike Ferner, After Downing Street
Posted on September 28, 2009, Printed on September 29, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142951/

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 overreactingand 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.

As intimidating as this massive show of armed force and technology was, the good burghers of Pittsburgh and their fellow citizens in the Land of the Brave and Home of the Free ain't seen nothin' yet.  Tear gas and pepper spray are nothing to sniff at and, indeed, have proven fatal a surprising number of times, but they have now become the old standbys compared to the list below that's already at or coming soon to a police station or National Guard headquarters near you.  Proving that "what goes around, comes around," some of the new Property Protection Devices were developed by a network of federally-funded, university-based research institutes like one in Pittsburgh itself, Penn State's Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies.

   Raytheon Corp.'s Active Denial System, designed for crowd control in combat zones, uses an energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation, like a hot iron placed on the skin.  It is effective beyond the range of small arms, in excess of 400 meters.  Company officials have been advised they could expand the market by selling a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces.

   M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition, with a range of 30 meters "is similar in operation to a claymore mine, but it delivers…a strong, nonpenetrating blow to the body with multiple sub-munitions (600 rubber balls)."

   Long Range Acoustic Device or "The Scream," is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can emit sound "50 times greater than the human threshold for pain" at close range, causing permanent hearing damage.  The L.A. Times wrote U.S. Marines in  Iraq used it in 2004.  It can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone…"[For] most people, even if they plug their ears, [the device] will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," says Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corp., the San Diego firm that produces the weapon. "It will knock [some people] on their knees."  CBS News reported in 2005 that the Israeli Army first used the device in the field to break up a protest against Israel's separation wall.  "Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea, after the vehicle-mounted device began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of about 10 seconds…A military official said the device emits a special frequency that targets the inner ear."

   In "Non-lethal Technologies: An Overview," Lewer and Davison describe a lengthy catalog of new weaponry including the "Directed Stick Radiator," a hand-held system based on the same technology as The Scream.  "It fires high intensity 'sonic bullets' or pulses of sound between 125-150db for a second or two.  Such a weapon could, when fully developed, have the capacity to knock people off their feet."

   The Penn State facility is testing a "Distributed Sound and Light Array Debilitator" a.k.a. the "puke ray."  The colors and rhythm of light are absorbed by the retina and disorient the brain, blinding the victim for several seconds.  In conjunction with disturbing sounds it can make the person stumble or feel nauseated.  Foreign Policy in Focus reports that the Department of Homeland Security, with $1 million invested for testing the device, hopes to see it "in the hands of thousands of policemen, border agents and National Guardsmen" by 2010.

   Spider silk is cited in the University of Bradford's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project, Report #4 (pg. 20) as an up-and-comer.  "A research collaboration between the University of New Hampshire and the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center is looking into the use of spider silk as a non-lethal 'entanglement' material for disabling people. They have developed a method for producing recombinant spider silk protein using E. coli and are trying to develop methods to produce large quantities of these fibres."

   New Scientist reports that the (I'm not making this up) Inertial Capacitive Incapacitator (ICI), developed by the Physical Optics Corporation of Torrance, California, uses a thin-film storage device charged during manufacture that only discharges when it strikes the target. It can be incorporated into a ring-shaped aerofoil and fired from a standard grenade launcher at low velocity, while still maintaining a flat trajectory for maximum accuracy.

   Aiming beyond Tasers, the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, (FY 2009 budget: $1B) the domestic equivalent of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), plans to develop wireless weapons effective over greater distances, such as in an auditorium or sports stadium, or on a city street.  One such device, the Piezer, uses piezoelectric crystals that produce voltage when they are compressed.  A 12-gauge shotgun fires the crystals, stunning the target with an electric shock on impact.  Lynntech of College Station, Texas, is developing a projectile Taser that can be fired from a shotgun or 40-mm grenade launcher to increase greatly the weapon's current range of seven meters.

   "Off the Rocker and On the Floor: Continued Development of Biochemical Incapacitating Weapons," a report by the Bradford Disarmament Research Centre revealed that in 1992, the National Institute of Justice contracted with Lawrence Livermore National Lab to review clinical anesthetics for use by special ops military forces and police.  LLNL concluded the best option was an opioid, like fentanyl, effective at very low doses compared to morphine.  Combined with a patch soaked in DMSO (dimethylsufoxide, a solvent) and fired from an air rifle, fentanyl could be delivered to the skin even through light clothing.  Another recommended application for the drug was mixed with fine powder and dispersed as smoke.

   After upgrades, the infamous "Puff the Magic Dragon" gunship from the Vietnam War is now the AC-130.  "Non-Lethal Weaponry: Applications to AC-130 Gunships," observes that "With the increasing involvement of US military in operations other than war…" the AC-130  "would provide commanders a full range of non-lethal weaponry from an airborne platform which was not previously available to them."  The paper concludes in part that "As the use of non-lethal weapons increases and it becomes valid and acceptable, more options will become available."

   Prozac and Zoloft are two of over 100 pharmaceuticals identified by the Penn State College of Medicine and the university's Applied Research Lab for further study as "non-lethal calmatives."  These Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), noted the Penn State study, "…are found to be highly effective for numerous behavioral disturbances encountered in situations where a deployment of a non-lethal technique must be considered.  This class of pharmaceutical agents also continues to be under intense development by the pharmaceutical industry…New compounds under development (WO 09500194) are being designed with a faster onset of action.  Drug development is continuing at a rapid rate in this area due to the large market for the treatment of depression (15 million individuals in North America)…It is likely that an SSRI agent can be identified in the near future that will feature a rapid rate of onset."

In Pittsburgh last week, an enormously expensive show of police and weaponry, intended for "security" of the G20 delegates, simultaneously shut workers out of downtown jobs for two days, forced gasping students and residents back into their dormitories and homes, and turned journalists' press passes into quaint, obsolete reminders of a bygone time.

Most significant of all, however, was what Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, told the Associated Press: "It's not just intimidation, it's disruption and in some cases outright prevention of peaceful protesters being able to get their message out."


Mike Ferner is a writer from Ohio and president of Veterans For Peace

© 2009 After Downing Street All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142951/

[Irobot]

VIDEO: G-20 Activists Blast Police Response - calling it a "military-style occupation" that resulted in the gassing + arrest of dozens of bystanders, including students + journalists

http://snardfarker.ning.com/group/pittsburgh_g20_summit/forum/topics/video-g20-activists-blast

[MandH2002]

Has anyone tried to leave a message on the Pittsburgh Police Department website, expressly targeting the Chief, Nathan Harper. Well I did and this is what I received when I tried to leave a message for him.....

"Your form submission has been rejected as it appears to be an abuse of our server (lamp01.city.pittsburgh.pa.us).
Our supplier of forms processing software has provided more information about this error.

You have input the same information in several fields in the form. Please re-submit the form without duplication
Your form submission was processed by (8.15), available from www.tectite.com"

Chief Nathan Harper ,
I hope you are happy with the criminal and unconstitutional acts you have committed against the people of Pittsburg during the G20 summit. You have committed treason and broke your your oath to serve the people and the constitution.


At the end is a small message I wanted to leave for the good Chief Harper. Good bye First Amendment, now Freedom of Speech is nothing more than spam.
 

[mthomas]

I think there's a very good chance the stock market topped last month right around the time of the G20 meetings, but I am still skeptical of playing the markets by shorting them for longer term positions because of all the govt intervention and rules changes.  For investors I think a safer plan is cash, gold, and gold mining stocks.  It is pretty clear that the Fed is going to continue doing whatever is necessary to try to avoid deflation, and this means a lot more money printing.  So that means a weaker dollar and a higher gold price, in my view.  I recently came across a good site that has an intraday gold blog at <a href="http://www.goldalert.com/gold_price_blog.php">http://www.goldalert.com/gold_price_blog.php</a> that discusses news and trends in gold mining companies, which I think is beneficial for investors and traders.  There are many serious unintended consequences of all this money printing, and I think this is going to lead to significantly higher inflation down the road.

[bigron]

Weekend Edition
October 9-11, 2009

Democracy Denied, While Criminality Applauded

The Crackdown on Pittsburgh

By MEL PACKER
http://www.counterpunch.org/packer10092009.html

During the days of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA, our citizenry witnessed an astounding spectacle and display of military might in the city we love and call home. To the dismay of many, our pedestrian friendly, getting-to-be-attractive downtown was turned into a military base resembling that more likely to be seen in third-world nations run by murderous dictators.

Oakland, one of the more attractive neighborhoods for visitors, students, and residents, became a running battlefield dominated by armored police forces carrying offensive weapons that turned our streets into a cheap imitation of Baghdad.

This is speculation, but my hunch is that many of those “robo-cops” had a pent-up urge to use their fancy weaponry and, finding little excuse to do so on the largely peaceful marches of the 24th and 25th, found a simpler target on any living being who happened to be hanging around the University of Pittsburgh/Oakland area Thursday and especially Friday night, the 25th. It should be especially disturbing to all of us that this included accredited journalists prominently wearing press passes who, like others, were arrested and had cameras smashed so as to destroy evidence of wrong-doing by police.

We have to ask who bears responsibility for this gross over-reaction that put almost 200 people in jail, most in violation of their constitutional right to assemble, and who should bear the blame. It’s easy to blame the individual armored police in the streets, and they do, in fact, deserve blame.

But the larger blame and responsibility lies with our City Council and Mayor, the County Commissioner (now declaring for Governor), University of Pittsburgh administration, and the Obama administration, which insisted that the Secret Service had the right to run our city during G-20. It is not just constitutional rights that were violated. There were crimes committed, assaults made, citizens beaten, neighborhoods and university buildings gassed with complete abandon and recklessness.

People were seized unjustly, beaten, faces slammed into concrete walls and sidewalks while waiting for buses. Many of those arrested were held overnight on buses and females being detained had to listen to sexually derogatory comments from police along with the obvious sexual threat given in the comment “maybe we should take the hot ones off the bus”. Scary? You betcha. And this comes from those who are allegedly there to protect our democratic rights.

Sorry, it doesn’t compute. Democratic rights were trampled, constitutional rights were ignored, and there were far more criminal acts committed by police than by protestors.

But here all we have heard from Pittsburgh City Police Chief Nate Harper is that the police did a fine job. These sentiments have been repeatedly echoed by Mayor Ravenstahl, Allegheny County Commissioner Onorato, and Univ of Pittsburgh Chancellor Nordenberg.

One kept hoping that as the melee/police riot developed, someone in one of those administrations would have had the moral courage to shout “STOP!” or to at least take to the media the next day with a denouncement of the debacle. But no, ALL of our elected officials chose not only to sit on their hands but to issue public statements applauding the police for their “professional behavior”, just as most did during the battle for permits to stage the protests, assuming the position of blind mice. This is moral cowardice at best, criminal complicity at worst, and deserves punishment.

Outrages committed by the “peacekeepers” in uniform have now been denounced by many citizens, organizations, newspapers, columnists, and the union representing print journalists. But denouncement is not enough. Recently, in London, criminal charges were filed against a police officer due to acts committed against G20 protesters there. The same should be done here.

There is no doubt in most minds that there will be massive lawsuits filed both individually and by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights in an attempt to rescue our city and nation from this horrible display of naked aggression and military power against unarmed people. I am also certain that the Pittsburgh Citizens Police Review Board will, after investigation, issue a scathing report about police mis-conduct.

But much more must be done if we are to put the lid on this behavior and to rescue our city from losing its welcoming reputation and gaining one that says “go away”. First, NONE of the officials involved who displayed such moral cowardice deserve our support and should be, frankly, hounded out of office and replaced by citizens that have some respect for citizens’ rights. Second, the possibility of filing criminal charges and/or civil lawsuits for damages against all who allowed the commission of these crimes, from individual officers to those in elected and appointed office should be explored.

If it is a crime to break windows, it is no less a crime to break heads. And those responsible need to be brought to justice in criminal and/or civil courts.

Anything less means further subversion of democracy and a further slide into the erosion of democratic rights for all of us.

Mel Packer is a Physician Assistant in Emergency Medicine, decades long peace and justice activist, one of the organizers of the anti-G20 activities primarily with the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee and the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project. He lives in Pittsburgh.

[seven_deviations]

citizens don't wear masks

provocateurs wear masks


I am a citizen living in the pittsburgh area

I will f**k YOU UP if I see you wearing a mask in the next protest situation