Standing high in the landscaped median in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse, we laughed with the crazy anarchist-peaceful-hippie-whatever protestors on the street in front of the Oliver Building side of Grant, dancing their heels off around a core of three garishly painted gals, flailing their limbs in joy. Their effusiveness was one extreme of the crowd, and juxtaposed to the angry, in-your-face brazenness of the Nameless Black Bandana Mob, it seemed to balance things some.
Counterpoints in the same crowd, the two groups were just planets flying in a galaxy of people representing causes, beliefs, grievances and interests of the 10,000 gathered on Grant Street, the heart of downtown Pittsburgh’s legal/governmental section. Lots of journalists in town for G-20, plus an equal number of attention-seekers in the crowd, such as an Abe Lincoln impersonator and a guy dressed in a Batman suit, added color and flair to the group.
At the starting point of the march in front of Carlow University, a reporter held a microphone to Faux Batman’s face, and asked: “What do you think of Christian Bale?”
It was a melting pot of malcontents and others, simmering and bubbling but never boiling. Wall-to-wall riot police along Grant Street and elsewhere along the parade route effectively cordoned activity into a militia-controlled corridor. The force included National Guardsmen and Pittsburgh Police, Port Authority of Allegheny County officers and Allegheny County Police, officers with the ATF, CIA and Pennsylvania State Police and cops from other parts of the nation. It seemed like a hell of a waste of a bunch of money spent on an occupying army in a free country.
The overwhelming force was offensive, but not as seemingly malevolent as police appeared the day before, when a much smaller group of protestors clashed with the armed forces, bashing a street barrier with a dumpster and being gassed in return. I wasn’t at the front of the crowd when that happened, because I was texting like a teenage girl. My boss wanted me to text him with info every half-hour, and more frequently if anything happened. As I was trying to do that, I’d fall behind as the Leaderless Mob ran up and down side streets in Bloomfield, Lawrenceville and the Strip District.
Back to grooving with the kids while they danced—in that lovely elevated stone-edged planter, looking at the dancers and hopping to the drum beat, I laughed with a guy standing next to me who also was enjoying the scene.
“Why’d you come here? Did you come out of curiosity or to protest?” I asked.
“Both,” contractor Mike Kelly said. “I’m a contractor…I work for rich people. And my wife can’t get health insurance…”
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the rest of Mike’s story, and I am sorry about that, because I know it is a powerful one and I missed the boat. But the point is that he is just one of many folks who went to the Big G20 March on Pittsburgh to have their say for a moment. That’s what made it so beautiful.
*************************************************************************************
I’m trying to tell Anne about how it felt to see the police occupying our city, to hear their Apocalyptic-sounding Robo Cop loudspeaker demanding that everyone disperse, upon penalty of arrest or worse.
It’s one thing to talk about jackbooted militarized police, about Guardsmen and cops from Alabama deputized to kick ass and not take names of locals and non-locals alike, and it’s an entirely different thing to be there to see, hear, and smell the scene—and to feel the bad vibes of it all.
“If you remain in this immediate vicinity, you are in violation of Pennsylvania Police criminal code,” the loudspeaker from the armored behemoth warned during the protest in Bloomfield on Thursday. The vehicle was about as big as a combine, and that’s why the cops nicknamed it the Hippie Harvester.
Taking in this scene, with riot-ready cops chasing people around and gassing them, it’s hard to not feel pissed as an American—that the police can treat people like this because they disagree with their beliefs. You start to feel very resentful about that police pressure.
“Why do they have to be so intimidating?” said a well-dressed lady in her sixties whom I met when she and a collared pastor from Greensburg allowed me to share a cab ride home with them afae Friday's march. The lady could’ve been one of the pastor’s parishioners, but she actually lives just blocks from me.
Seeing the police act like that can radicalize people, making freedom-loving Americans angry—like the contingent of folks who thronged to join the marchers as they traveled through Uptown and the Hill District.
Being Americans, most all of us feel in our hearts from birth (or from when we adopted this country) that being American isn’t about being Black, White or Latino, or about being rich or poor—or at least it shouldn’t be about these factors that for many are dependent upon the circumstances of their birth. Being truly American, we know in our hearts, is about doing the right thing by treating people fairly.
When some people can’t make a living because they are denied a living wage, that’s not fair and it aint American. When nations are oppressed ostensibly for liberty but truly for greed, that’s un-American. And when Americans are denied the right of free assembly, that is a sin.
You have to be there to feel it—to hear the heavy
click-clack sound of leg protectors slapping boots stomping pavement, and the
whack-whack of hundreds of Billy clubs against body armor. The message:
Don’t even try to mess with us.
But who was this roving band of police protecting? They clearly were guarding the important stores, businesses and landmarks along the marcher's route. This was especially apparent in Uptown, where the troops formed protective barriers around particular buildings, and left the old beat-up and empty or nondescript storefronts and buildings unguarded.
Ted Haretos, a building owner in that section of town, watched the marchers bemusedly as he stood in front of his building along Fifth Avenue. “They have the right to protest,” he said.
Taylor Smith of Philadelphia, a member of the Peoples Caravan—a group of about two dozen demonstrators who traveled from Philly for the protest—said the Caravan is meant to connect grass roots organizations. “I think it’s undemocratic for the G-20 leaders to be meeting here,” he said.
Prague, Czech Republic native Jana Ridvanova held a sign that read: “Organize, occupy, fight for the right to work.” She was unabashed in her Socialism.
“I’m here to protest capitalism not only because it’s not working, but because capitalism is enslavement, through slave wages, and also murder, in Third World countries," Ridvanova said.
Members of the Green Party, Socialists, Communists, Palestinian activists, single-payer health care proponents, Free Tibet people, peace activists, Libertarians, and proselytizing Christians mixed together in the crowd, along with many others.
Dressed entirely in black, wearing a “Free Mumia” patch on her shirt, Denver-resident Renee Sandefer said she came to the Big G20 March because the people who caused the current economic crisis are here.
“Obama needs to be speaking to those who are suffering,” Sandefer said. “I want to be here in the streets because I’ll go home tonight and sleep easy because I tried. I support the people, not the bigwigs who caused the crisis.”
Perennial Pittsburgh activist Vincent Eirene said he came to the march to spread awareness of what G-20 is, and the effect it’s having. “It’s cutting labor laws, cutting environmental laws, and controlling people through loans,” he said.
Some protestors carried signs that read: "End Corporate Rule,” and “People Before Profit.”
Bail Out The People activist Larry Holmes led part of the crowd in chanting as they marched.
“When I say bailout you say people. Bailout!”
“People!”
“Bailout the people!”
“Not the banks!”
Pittsburgh resident and peace activist Jessica Benner directed the marchers at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Grant Street, waving them onto Grant. “We’re hoping for a people’s march combining many voices as one to protest G-20 policies,” she said.
Through it all the Black Garbed Mob carried their black standards and banners, chanting “Anti Capitalista!” At a few places they confronted police, forcing their black banner up to within feet of the occupying force while chanting their slogans. The cops were unmoved.
Within feet of the Black Garbed Mob was Ithaca, N.Y. native/CMU grad student Gwendolyn Barr. She was happy to share her views, which she said are based in her Evangelical Christian beliefs.
“Clearly the G-20 [attendees] won’t pay attention. But the world media will pay attention to the issues we care about and are raising here," Barr said. "The G-20 makes decisions that are good for their countries, and are devastating to third world countries.”