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Last Updated: 3/17/2009

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Age: 23
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City: PITTSBURGH
State: Pennsylvania
Country: US
Signup Date: 7/19/2006

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 

Category: News and Politics
FBI probing fight at McKeesport High
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
By Jerome L. Sherman and Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09294/1007085-298.stm

Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette
Ashante Spears, 16, left, and Robin Smith, 17, outside the Family Division of Common Pleas Court yesterday.
The FBI is investigating a fight between a police officer and two female students this month in a hallway and a classroom of McKeesport Area High School.
Officer Candace Tyler, who has been placed on paid administrative leave, used pepper spray against both girls before arresting them, McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero said yesterday, although he declined to comment on the specifics of the Oct. 5 incident.
In court papers, Officer Tyler said the students, Ashante Spears and Robin Smith, cursed and fought with her as she tried to remove Ms. Spears, who had been suspended, from the school grounds.
But Ms. Spears and Ms. Smith countered that the officer, unprovoked, attacked them both, slamming Ms. Spears' head against a wall and punching and dragging Ms. Smith from her anatomy class.
"The main thing I was thinking was, 'What did I do?' " Ms. Smith, a 17-year-old senior, said yesterday. "She just came in and hit me on the side of the head."
Chief Pero said interviews with staff and students at the school and the severity of the allegations prompted him to contact the FBI's civil rights division.
Superintendent Michael Brinkos of the McKeesport Area School District also declined to discuss specifics, but he acknowledged that local police and the FBI were looking into an incident.
"It's the district's intent to comply with any potential investigation and to make our staff available to answer any questions regarding this matter," he said.
Ms. Smith and Ms. Spears have been charged with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
According to the juvenile complaint, Officer Tyler, assigned to security at the school, was called to the office of Tamara Sanders-Woods, the associate principal of discipline and community relations, shortly after 8 a.m. to remove Ms. Spears. The principal told Officer Tyler that Ms. Spears, 16, also a senior, had been "very disrespectful" to staff and was facing suspension.
As the officer took Ms. Spears to the front door, the girl started shouting profanities, drawing a crowd of students and teachers, the complaint said. Officer Tyler tried to arrest Ms. Spears, but she punched the officer in the forehead.
In an interview yesterday in front of Family Court, Downtown, both Ms. Spears and Ms. Smith disputed the officer's version of events. Ms. Spears said that Officer Tyler had been aggressively pushing her toward the front of the school. When she asked Officer Tyler to stop, the officer pulled her hair and banged her head against a wall, Ms. Spears said.
According to the officer's narrative in the complaint, Ms. Smith tried to intervene by grabbing the back of the officer's jacket. A teacher then pulled Ms. Smith into a classroom, and Officer Tyler used pepper spray to subdue Ms. Spears. After Ms. Spears had been placed under arrest, Office Tyler returned to the classroom for Ms. Smith, who also screamed profanities at her, the complaint said. The officer told Ms. Smith to stop, but the student punched her in the face.
Officer Tyler then sprayed Ms. Smith and placed her under arrest, the complaint said.
Ms. Smith denies that she ever struck or even touched Officer Tyler. When the officer clashed with Ms. Spears, a group of teachers surrounded the pair, keeping all students away, Ms. Smith said.
"There was no physical way that I could touch her," Ms. Smith said.
She said she did turn to Thomas Knight, an assistant principal, and tell him, "You can't let them fight like that. [Ms. Spears] is a child."
Mr. Knight replied that she should go to her next class, Ms. Smith said.
A few minutes later, as her anatomy teacher was about to close the door, Ms. Smith heard Officer Tyler coming down the hall, yelling, "Where's the fat [expletive]?"
Officer Tyler entered the classroom and told Ms. Smith to come with her, Ms. Smith said. As the student picked up her bookbag and approached Officer Tyler, the officer grabbed her hair and punched her, she said.
The officer then used pepper spray and placed handcuffs on Ms. Smith. About 20 other students and her teacher were witnesses, Ms. Smith said.
Both Ms. Spears and Ms. Smith spent the night at the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
The next day, after being released, Ms. Smith returned to the high school with her mother to talk to administrators, including Mr. Knight, who invited her to immediately return to classes.
"We don't feel that you did anything wrong," Ms. Smith said they told her. "Not one teacher saw you put your hands on [Officer Tyler]."
Ms. Smith and her mother also met with Chief Pero and an FBI agent, who told them they were investigating the incident.
"I was furious" about the incident and the charges against her daughter, said Carla Smith, Robin's mother. "My daughter wasn't raised like that."
Officer Tyler has been with McKeesport police since 2005, and she became one of three officers assigned to the schools in 2006 to supplement the security staff, Chief Pero said.
She has never faced discipline before.
"Based on the allegations that were made I felt more comfortable with an outside agency investigating," he said of his decision to call the FBI.
He said it would be up to a judge to decide whether to drop charges against Ms. Spears and Ms. Smith.
Both girls acknowledged that they had been suspended before for "small stuff," such as skipping class. Ms. Spears said she is still prohibited from returning to school. The girls face a hearing in juvenile court on Oct. 27.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09294/1007085-298.stm#ixzz0UXtzsNBG
5:36 AM 
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Friday, October 16, 2009 

Category: News and Politics
Local leaders to dismantle school-to-prison pipeline

Written by Rebecca Nuttall - Courier Staff Writer 

http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=567:local-leaders-to-dismantle-school-to-prison-pipeline&catid=38:metro&Itemid=27
  		Thursday, 15 October 2009 12:55
There are currently 456 juveniles serving life sentences in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. At a meeting held by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, community leaders discussed the concept of the school-to-prison pipeline, a system they say accounts for the large numbers of African-American male juveniles in the prison system.

Meeting leader Jasiri X of One Hood, an organization that works to defeat street violence, said the school-to-prison pipeline has been facilitated by disciplinary policies that push students out of classrooms and into prisons. He said this has occurred due to the increase in zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, disciplinary alternative schools and the installment of police officers in schools.
“We have heard about a school where they told the students ‘if you’re in the hallway you get arrested’,” Jasiri said. “And there was also the incident where a 5-year-old girl was handcuffed and arrested.”
While the group did place blame on the school systems for criminalizing students, they also addressed issues within the community such as irresponsible parenting. They resolved to create a support system for children whose parents aren’t actively engaged in their education.
“Yes we need to push the legislative change, the political change and the administrative change, but we also need to push internal change,” said Khalid Raheem, president of the National Council for Urban Peace and Justice. “There’s still a lot of work we need to do in ourselves and our families.”
Raheem pointed to drug activity as a major factor in the school-to-prison pipeline. He said it keeps parents from focusing on fighting institutional injustices and pushes students down the wrong path.
“We’ve been knocked out from this dibbling and dabbling in drugs and drug trafficking,” Raheem said. “You cannot launch any struggle for liberation and freedom if you’re drunk or high.”
Others at the meeting pointed to stress factors such as absent parents and irresponsible parents as reasons children misbehave in school. Often times, they said symptoms of stress are ignored until it is too late.
“These are the underlying issues that are making these kids angry and sad,” said Iasia Eybers, program manager, Urban Youth Action. “There’s some underlying issues before they even get shackled and put in the car.”
Others at the meeting agreed that the police presence is too strong in schools today. They also brought up cases where they feel tasers were used unjustly against students.
Many said there should be social workers in the schools who advocate on behalf of the students in case parents do not take the responsibility. Former social worker Kelly Parker also added that teachers should be trained on how to deal with at-risk students who misbehave.
“I believe the screaming and hollering at kids at such a young age needs to go,” Parker said. “They need to understand they’re dealing with children.”
The meeting was the second in the ACLU’s three-part “Juvenile Justice Series.” The last session will be on Nov. 13 and will focus on the Youth Promise Act.
12:28 AM 
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Friday, October 09, 2009 
Police call frisking a widespread tool that deters crime
Friday, October 09, 2009
By Colleen Long, The Associated Press

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09282/1004187-84.stm

NEW YORK -- A teenager trying to get into his apartment after school is confronted by police. A man leaving his workplace chooses a different route back home to avoid officers who roam a particular street.
These and hundreds of thousands of other Americans in big cities have been stopped on the street by police using a law-enforcement practice called stop-and-frisk that alarms civil libertarians but is credited by authorities with helping reduce crime.
Police in major U.S. cities stop and question more than a million people each year -- a sharply higher number than just a few years ago. Most are black and Hispanic men. Many are frisked, and nearly all are innocent of any crime, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press.
And the numbers are rising at the same time crime rates are dropping.
Ronnie Carr's experience was typical: He was fumbling with his apartment door after school in Brooklyn when plainclothes officers flashed their badges.
"What are you doing here?" one asked, as they rifled through his backpack and then his pockets. The black teenager stood there, quiet and nervous, and waited.
The Carr youth said the officers told him they stopped him because he looked suspicious peeking in the windows. He explained that he had lost his keys. Twenty minutes later, the officers left. The youth was not arrested or cited with any offense.
"I felt bad, like I did something wrong," he said.
Civil liberties groups say the practice is racist and fails to deter crime. Police departments maintain it is a necessary tool that turns up illegal weapons and drugs and prevents more serious crime.
Police records indicate that officers are drawn to suspicious behavior: furtive movements, actions that indicate someone may be serving as a lookout, anything that suggests a drug deal, or a person carrying burglary tools such as a slim jim or pry bar.
The New York Police Department is among the most vocal defenders of the practice. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said recently that officers may stop as many as 600,000 people this year. About 10 percent are arrested.
The practice is perfectly legal. A 1968 Supreme Court decision established the benchmark of "reasonable suspicion" -- a standard that is lower than the "probable cause" needed to justify an arrest.
But in the mid-1990s, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton made stop-and-frisk an integral part of the city's law enforcement, relying on the "broken windows" theory that targeting low-level offenses helps prevent bigger ones.
Street stops started to go up, and overall crime dropped dramatically.
Last year, New York police stopped 531,159 people, more than five times the number in 2002. Fifty-one percent of those stopped were black, 32 percent Hispanic and 11 percent white.
Not all stops are the same. Some people are just stopped and questioned. Others have their bag or backpack searched. And sometimes police conduct a full pat-down.
David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on street stops, said few searches yield weapons or drugs. And the more people are searched, the more innocent people are hassled.
When officers make a stop, they are required to fill out a form, including the time and location of the stop and why police were suspicious. Age, race and whether the person was frisked are also recorded.
In Philadelphia, stops nearly doubled to more than 200,000 from 2007 to 2008. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter deployed an "aggressive" stop-and-frisk policy in the year since his election in November 2007 and overall crime has dropped.
In Los Angeles, where Mr. Bratton recently stepped down as police commissioner, pedestrian stops have doubled in the past six years to 244,038 in 2008. The number of people stopped in cars is higher.
About 15 percent of the stops resulted in arrests in 2002, compared with about 30 percent in 2008, according to an analysis of the data by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
RAND, an independent research agency hired by the New York Police Department to analyze street-stop data in 2007 after public outcry, found little racial profiling. It said the raw statistics "distorted the magnitude and, at times, the existence of racially biased policing."
The NYPD continues to monitor the issue, but after the RAND analysis, officials agreed that large-scale restructuring was unnecessary.
Civil liberties groups also complain because New York police keep a database of everyone stopped -- innocent or not. That makes them targets for future investigations, said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Los Angeles was forced by federal mandate to release data on street stops -- including the race of those stopped -- starting in 2000 after a series of scandals.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09282/1004187-84.stm#ixzz0TSaIFLGu
5:19 PM 
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009 
ACLU Discussion on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

7:00-8:30pm, Thursday Oct. 8th

A growing number of our region’s youth are being criminalized, not educated. Concerned about police in schools, tasers being used against students, and marginalizing at-risk youth?

Join our discussion as we talk about the School-to-Prison Pipeline, and what we can do to end it.

Location: Amani International Coffee House, 507 Foreland St., Pittsburgh, 15212

More information and resources can be found at: www.aclupa.org/pittsburgh

Contact Erin Gill, Community Organizer for more information: 412-681-7736 x22, egill@aclupa.org
7:36 PM 
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009 

Category: News and Politics

CPRB Community Forum: G-20 in Lawrenceville

Tuesday, 10/20/09, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Stephen Foster Community center

286 Main Street, Lawrenceville – Penn Main

More info to follow.

Beth

Elizabeth C. Pittinger
Executive Director
Citizen Police Review Board
816 Fifth Avenue, Suite 400
Pittsburgh PA 15219
412-765-8023 Voice
412-765-8059 Fax
CPRB - promoting responsible citizenship and respectable law enforcement through mutual accountability.
5:53 PM 
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009 

Category: News and Politics
The G-20: a guest with an iron fist
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09272/1001566-485.stm?cmpid=bcpanel1


Storm Troopers Occupy Pittsburgh, PA During G20 Photo: (c) Paradise Gray

Once upon a time, people in Western Pennsylvania knew authoritarianism when they saw it. It had an unmistakable odor about it -- like the smell of Pinkertons and sulfur wafting up from the steel mills of Homestead.

It didn't wear makeup or attempt to justify itself with flowers or candy. Authoritarianism used to be honest about its own brutality -- and it didn't care much who noticed. When it looked in the mirror, it recognized its reflection. With a wink and a smile, it exercised its prerogative for violence at the slightest provocation. It kissed its brass knuckles and its twirling baton and expected you to do the same.

Over the years, authoritarianism has learned the value of mounting a charm offensive before it comes out swinging. Though it has gotten a face lift or two over the years, it still exhibits the same contempt for democracy it always has. Though it douses itself with perfume and wears a loincloth made of shredded pieces of the Constitution, it stinks of rotten eggs, rubber and pepper spray. When it is doing its business on the streets, it expects you to avert your eyes -- and God help you if you ever question its authority or tactics.

Last week, authoritarianism came back to Pittsburgh. Like any long-lost uncle, it came bearing gifts: national and international media exposure that would take $100 million to achieve, $35 million in cash injected into the local economy and a cavalcade of world leaders who took time from their oligarchies back home to admire the solidity of our fences and barriers Downtown.

All authoritarianism wanted in exchange for these goodies was our soul -- starting with our civil liberties. Our civic leaders, flattered by the "prestige" that comes with hosting a G-20 summit, quickly obliged. Who would miss a little thing like civil liberties, anyway?

For three days, Downtown was emptied of four-fifths of its population and replaced with 4,000 cops who spread out to different parts of the city when ordered to do so by some invisible democracy-hating high command.

The cops given the task of imitating Darth Vader's stormtroopers were a grim bunch. They volunteered to come here from other parts of the country, attracted by the mercenary pay and the opportunity to exert the kind of force on a civilian population their own civic leaders would never let them get away with. Pittsburgh now has the dubious distinction of being the only place outside Russia where sonic weapons were used on a civilian population.

Dressed entirely in black, the irony of the cops' villainous-looking protective gear was lost to them but apparent to everyone they gassed, pepper-sprayed, knocked to the ground and arrested without cause. Yesterday, the city released a list of 190 people, including several journalists, arrested during the summit. Cameras were damaged and film destroyed in a clumsy and bare-knuckled attempt to abrogate the First Amendment.

"As a group, the police responded admirably," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said resisting the urge to identify with people close to his age, but more diminished in power and stature. Mr. Ravenstahl couldn't afford to acknowledge what anyone with access to YouTube can see with their own eyes -- that there was a full-scale breakdown in public order on the part of the cops. The images of the brutal assault on Pitt students and passers-by caught up in an indiscriminate and chaotic police sweep at the University of Pittsburgh on Friday night will surely be a cautionary tale to the next American mayor silly enough to consider hosting a G-20 summit.

An occupation like the one Pittsburgh experienced can't help but change the way people view cops and their civic leaders going forward. For three days, thousands of militarized strangers took possession of our city, ostensibly to "protect" foreign and domestic leaders most of us would never see, much less meet. As one critic of the police action said during a news conference at the Thomas Merton Center yesterday, if the planners of future G-20 summits really want to ensure smooth, dissent-free experiences for the world's leaders, why not have the conferences at military bases?

Security for the G-20 in Pittsburgh is put conservatively at $20 million. There was an estimated $50,000 in damage to windows and storefronts caused by anarchists in a few neighborhoods on the East End. But more than a few windows were broken last week. Something ghastly happened to us.

We proved we were willing to give up something very precious to us for a few days in the international spotlight. We invited authoritarianism into our homes and promised not to whimper while it danced on our necks. This is truly pathetic.

Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09272/1001566-485.stm?cmpid=bcpanel1
1:47 PM 
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Monday, September 28, 2009 

Category: News and Politics

A 5-year-old boy fatally shot in the living room of his Northview Heights home Saturday started kindergarten this month and loved riding the school bus.
"It made him think he was one of the big kids," said Sakeenah Foster, a neighbor.
Jaylon Johnson-Floyd was sleeping on a love seat when one or two people broke in through the basement door about 5 a.m., went upstairs and began firing at an 18-year-old male visitor, who was shot in both legs. He was hospitalized in critical condition at Allegheny General Hospital.
A bullet struck Jaylon in the chest, police said. Responding officers administered CPR, but he died at Allegheny General a half-hour later.
The youngster's death, which stunned his neighbors, puts him among the youngest homicide victims in recent years in Pittsburgh. A 10-month-old girl and 6-year-old boy were among the city's homicide victims last year.
"My little girl's best friend has died," said Barbara Pallett, another neighbor whose daughter, Danielle, rode bikes and drew crayon pictures with Jaylon on Friday. The training wheels on his bike were removed just a few months ago.
"They have known each other every day and played together in rain, sun and snow. It did not matter what the weather was like — they were always out there together," Pallett said.
Yesterday, Danielle spent much of the day crying and asking her mother and brother why her best friend had to die. Pallet, who regarded Jaylon "like one of my own kids," worries about how the loss will affect her daughter.
"She has been carrying his picture around today. But I'm not sure she will really understand that he's gone until she goes to the wake," Pallett said.
Jaylon lived on Penfort Street with his mother, aunt and the aunt's baby. Police did not identify them. It isn't clear whether the 18-year-old victim, who wasn't identified, arrived at the home shortly before the shooting or whether he was there for hours, said Pittsburgh police Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant.
The shooters "were directing the shots at the 18-year-old male victim," Bryant said.
Jaylon's mother was asleep in a second-floor bedroom. His aunt was asleep on a couch with her 7-month-old baby on her chest. The 18-year-old was asleep on another couch.
Investigators found three gunshot rounds in the love seat where Jaylon slept, Bryant said.
"He may have been shot while he was lying down sleeping, or he may have sat up when he heard the noise and was shot then," she said.
The suspect or suspects fled. Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said officers made no arrests.
Bryant said investigators have several theories about a motive but she declined to elaborate.
Jaylon attended Allegheny Traditional Academy, a North Side magnet school.
Foster said Jaylon, nicknamed "Jiga," was a rambunctious boy who easily made friends.
"Every time you'd come out of the front door, he'd be there wanting to talk," she said.
Jaylon's friends included Foster's son, LaMont Johnson, 9, and her 15-year-old daughter, also named Sakeenah.
"He liked to play football with LaMont, who is bigger than him. And he liked to tell everyone that my daughter was his girlfriend," she said.
Her husband, Norman Foster, said he found it difficult to believe the boy was gone.
"You hear about this sort of thing but think it will never happen where you live, to someone you know. This is a real tragedy here," he said.
Jaylon was his mother's only child, said Pallett, their neighbor. "She is a nice young lady. She takes good care of her son."
Police asked anyone with information about the case to call the Pittsburgh Homicide Squad at 412-323-7161. Callers can remain anonymous.
2:56 AM 
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Sunday, September 27, 2009 
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09270/1001201-482.stm#ixzz0SJkPJ59D

In the aftermath of the G-20 summit

Cleanup begins across city as G-20 legacy is contemplated
Sunday, September 27, 2009
By Lillian Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette
The protesters heckle people who they think are undercover policemen who joined their march last night along Fifth Avenue in Oakland.
The spin battle in the G-20 aftermath is intense.
Pittsburgh, a scrappy place that bounced back from economic downturn to become a green, friendly, modern city, the perfect host for a G-20 summit blazing a unified trail to world economic recovery.
Or ...
Pittsburgh, a locked-down ghost of a city occupied by swarms of storm troopers playing cat-and-mouse with a small band of anarchists and finally cracking down Friday on a group filled with University of Pittsburgh students.
n
Local officials portray the summit as a huge success that put the city in a positive light on a world stage.
County Executive Dan Onorato said it showed the world "we can pull off an event like this." Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said, "We're pleased we delivered a peaceful summit."
Police said getting through two intense days of juggling peaceful marches, confrontations with unpermitted groups, and the possibility of terror attacks during a gathering of world leaders with only 83 arrests, no serious injuries and no security breaches is an impressive accomplishment. An additional 110 arrests late Friday took place after the summit officially closed.
On Wednesday, police arrested nine Greenpeace representatives who unfurled one banner on the West End Bridge and tried to hang a second on the Fort Pitt Bridge. They arrested dozens Thursday afternoon and evening during an unpermitted march that started in Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville before splitting apart, with participants clashing with police while they ranged over Bloomfield, East Liberty and Oakland.
On Friday, officers stood wall to wall along the route of a permitted march from Oakland, into Downtown and over the Andy Warhol Bridge into the North Side, a march that remained peaceful.
Hours later, they moved in on a loud crowd when they said it began to block Forbes Avenue. After issuing eight orders to disperse over 15 minutes, officers said they arrested those who had refused to comply.
Small groups of protesters assembled again last night -- about 35 people in front of the Allegheny County Jail and, later, about 60 students and others in Schenley Plaza -- to demonstrate support for those who had been arrested in the plaza the night before.
At the jail, protesters carried signs or candles, sang and chanted, "Stop arresting innocent people." No arrests were made there.
Two hours later, a handful of officers looked on from opposing corners while students and others gathered to chat and play hacky sack in Schenley Plaza. Shortly before 11 p.m., at least 60 people began to chant antipolice slogans and march through nearby streets while officers in riot gear monitored their movements. That gathering petered out, apparently without incident, about an hour later.
Others saw the days of the Group of 20 summit in a different light -- viewing it as an event that inconvenienced residents and tarnished the city's image due to both the disorder in its neighborhoods and the response of its police.
Many residents and businesses were frustrated initially by the lack of information about security and traffic, then about the extent of those measures.
People who live and work Downtown -- and didn't flee after learning of restrictions and closures -- on Thursday found an empty city blocked in dozens of spots by fences topped with concertina wire and heavily armed officers drawn from local, state and national police and security agencies.
Choreographed events for G-20 leaders and spouses -- a reception at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, a visit to the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and to the Andy Warhol Museum -- were vivid on the world screen but carried out on an empty local stage.
The bulk of the controversy, though, stemmed from events Friday night in Oakland after the summit ended. At around 10:30 p.m., police massed near the grassy area of Schenley Plaza, where a loud crowd of about 400 people had gathered.
Police said the crowd spilled onto Forbes Avenue, blocking traffic. They began to give orders to disperse, starting at 10:42 p.m with the first of eight commands issued over 15 minutes. As they'd done on previous days, police employed a loudspeaker and the high-pitched whistle of a Long-Range Acoustic Device.
Many people in the crowd began to move. But a number of people who were there said they became hemmed in by a second group of police officers coming west on Forbes. A group of about 100 people knocked over a waist-high fence and scurried over a hedge before scattering onto the lawn between the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel.
Meanwhile, a police official said, a woman who had been riding a bicycle with another group that had moved up Bellefield Avenue to Fifth Avenue rode toward Pittsburgh Police Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, pulled off at the last second, then turned to do it again.
Chief Donaldson, the scene commander, gave the order to begin making arrests. Many of the people on the Cathedral lawn were ordered to lie down and were arrested around 11 p.m. Among them was Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman and at least two local news photographers.
Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, yesterday said people who were on the Pitt campus Friday night have told him they believe police had no reason to respond in that way. He said some who were arrested have said that they tried to disperse, but kept running into other police units and were trapped until they were arrested.
At a news conference yesterday, police Chief Nate Harper said people had plenty of time to leave before police moved on the crowd.
"If in 15 minutes, you don't know how to get out of there, how did you get there? Fifteen minutes is quite a period of time for you to begin to make egress," he said.
Mr. Walczak said the situation "could have been managed by far fewer police officers. The key is, it should have been managed and not suppressed."
A police official said that it wasn't that simple. Officers had obtained information that anarchists who participated in marches Thursday were planning to confront them. After discovering anarchists had been hiding in Panther Hollow, police were concerned that they would try to draw officers into confrontations with the crowd and damage property.
Police also believed that if they did not make arrests, they would end up with serious injuries and massive damage, the official said.
"We were disappointed but not surprised that we had issues there," said Public Safety Director Michael Huss. "We had intelligence earlier in the day that some of these folks had bought lighters and lighter fluid from the drug store."
Chief Harper said there will be a standard review of the operation and tactics that were used.
Pitt, too, had its own mixed opinion of events surrounding the G-20. The university opted to remain open during the summit, unlike many schools in the area, and invited those attending the event to visit its campus.
"This was a very good week for the University of Pittsburgh leading into Thursday afternoon. We had two world leaders here. The leaders engaged with our students," spokesman Robert Hill said. "We were just very disappointed that all changed Thursday night and was repeated again Friday night, with property damage on Thursday and arrests and more arrests on Friday night. Most of our students were engaged in their normal activities on Thursday and Friday and even Friday evening ... It's just really disappointing in the midst of our terrific campus life we had this ugly, untoward behavior."
Mr. Hill said Chancellor Mark Nordenberg was not available for comment yesterday.
There could be no disagreement over one thing: Pittsburgh was redded up for the G-20. And its effort to show itself as a clean city carried through even after the leaders' departure.
Less than half a day after G-20 leaders issued their final communique Friday, there was little sign on the streets that the summit -- and months of feverish work leading up to it -- ever happened.
By yesterday, streets in Bloomfield and Oakland where police and protesters had clashed were clean and quiet. At the latter, "Little Italy Days" went on as usual, as did bustling business in the Strip District and Shadyside where storefronts had been boarded up only a day earlier.
City laborers completed much of their cleanup after working through the night to remove concrete barriers around Downtown and pick up after Friday's march from Oakland to the North Side.
The biggest remaining task, which workers will tackle tomorrow, is returning trash cans that were removed from Oakland, Downtown and elsewhere so protesters could not use them as projectiles, said Public Works Director Guy Costa. Newspaper boxes were removed for the same reason.
At the same time, workers were mobilizing for today's Richard S. Caliguiri Pittsburgh Great Race from Squirrel Hill to Downtown. More than 12,000 runners have registered -- the second-highest number in the race's 32 years.
"We're going to blitz it," Mr. Costa said. He said outside of working during snow emergencies, "I've never seen anything like it."
Staff Writers Ann Belser, Eleanor Chute, Cindi Lash, Michael A. Fuoco, Dan Majors, and Timothy McNulty contributed.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09270/1001201-482.stm#ixzz0SJlJxwJW
2:36 PM 
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Friday, September 25, 2009 

Category: News and Politics
By Paradise Gray

http://g20pgh.ning.com/profiles/blogs/use-the-force-luke-storm

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said that the level of security that we are seeing in the streets of Pittsburgh is normal for the G20 and these type of events, however I am from New York and have never seem a city locked down like Pittsburgh is locked down right now. The city is like a ghost town right now. Boarded up businesses and residents afraid to leave their homes for media driven fear of the protesters or intimidation from the massive display of military power by an occupying force that looks like a scene from "Clone Wars" in the Star Wars Universe. It's ironic that with the amount of metal cages surrounding the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and Downtown Pittsburgh our city can once again can make the claim of "Steel City". Way to run "The Steel Curtain Defense" Pittsburgh!




I was at a March in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh today and I saw one of the largest gatherings of Police/troops that I have ever seen domestically, I saw nothing like what I saw today at the The United Nations, The Million Man March, The Millions More Movement, nor President Obama's Inauguration. I haven't seen anything like this in Post 911 New York. Sheer numbers of heavily armed officers in full riot gear, complex tactical crowd dispersal maneuvers, flash bangs, tear gas and cutting edge audio technology were used to totally smash the un-authorized protest.




Police also fired rubber bullets and teargas in Oakland area of Pittsburgh. Mostly at University Of Pittsburgh Students! According to Councilman Bill Peduto Cathedral of Learning surrounded, police giving dispersal orders, helicopters flying low w/ searchlight most of Fifth all Forbes Ave. closed.

Black Hawk and Chinook Helicopters, Gunboats, Armored Humvee's, at least two Lenco Bears, Secret Command Posts, The Secret Service, The National Guard, Coast Guards, Swat Teams, State Troopers, National, City and County Police, Transit Cops, Security Guards and I swear that I heard the Darth Vader Music play when these guys marched by:


Talk about "Star Wars Defense" Systems!

I can't wait to see the numbers of lost money by the downtown business's that the city begged to stay open during the G20 summit only to see their customers "fenced off".

$20 Million for G20 security, nothing for the "Woman's Walk For Peace" on Oct. 3rd on the North Side. http://www.womenswalk.org




More Photos:

G20 Summit 2009 Pittsburgh, PA Album 3 - Military Zone!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114075&id=507894491&l...
6:40 AM 
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Thursday, September 24, 2009 
Pittsburgh Welcomes The World! Good Morning Vietnam!!!!!



Media Fear Tactics, Steel Cages, Blackhawk & Chinook Helicopters, armored Humvees, & Secret Command Posts. Just another day living in the hood.

Full story: http://paradisegray.blogspot.com/2009/09/pittsburgh-welcomes-world-good-morning.html
4:48 PM 
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