Where was the Penn State football team when you needed it? You seriuosly need some heavy body gear if you're going to tangle with a bunch of Combine storm troopers. This was City 17, right? *dark case of *law abuses no doubt.

Also, this is a modern age representation of why unarmed civilian mobs stand no chance against dragoons. Surprised they didn't just charge them on horseback with lances and sabres while they were at it. Too Czarist? Or not enough horses?

OMG, look at the beatdown the girl gets 5 seconds from teh end - what the HELL was that about?

Yeah, speaking of the 2nd, where were the yahoos with AR-15s who were showing up at Obama's roadshow? Hmmm....

I wonder when the HalfLife 2 mod is coming out?

Adding video to channels (Dark, Law) - requested by Krupo.

Is this the land of the free and the home of the brave?

These were students! They're not going to have freaking guns! It looks like they did what they could but yeah, those Combine troopers are something to fear.

All around this nation we see stories EVERY day in the news of the police acting more like gestapo then protecting the free. I hope you folks realize that our own version of the STASI are constantly monitoring popular sites like the sift and casually jotting down who is who and what they think.

Analyzing how likely each of us might be a potential "terrorist threat." You guys know that is still going on, right?

That Obama actually kept the government spying program going instead of shutting it down like he promised?

You guys realize that is still happening, right?

Hundreds of assholes poured into the streets to pick fights, break shit and overall just be dicks. They trashed my city and caused thousands of dollars of damage, not to mention endangered he lives of countless others. You see those assholes hurl a dumpster down that hill? That's assault with a deadly weapon. They could have killed someone. There were other protests that DIDN'T dissolve into riots that had a very strong police presence. I wonder why. But no one is watching those videos because it doesn't fir into their bullshit view of "OMG COPS ARE EVIL."

Also everyone seems to be forgetting that these protests were ILLEGAL. They didn't stick to where they were supposed to, they weren't organized and the majority of people there (or at least a vocal minority) were intent on blocking traffic and causing as much grief to the city as possible.

As far as those idiots on the stairs go who think they were "severely burned," well, they're idiots too. What were they thinking? "Hey, lets go watch a riot! Oh no! My eyes are burning from the gas!" No pity.

The girl at the end of the video, the cops were ordering her to move, her friend was pulling her away from them, yet she decided that her vapid little voice needed to be heard for some reason.

Finally, to the person who posted this video and said "When the government takes your 1st Amendment rights, there's always the 2nd Amendment to fall back on. This is when watering the tree of liberty is necessary," you all realize he's advocating the murder of government officials right? Timothy McVeigh fans?

^I cannot tell if you're the Republican type Statist or the Democrat type. Please stand up and be counted.

Would democracy exist as we know it if the French hadn't murdered some government officials? lostTurntable you are a moron if you think protest can be effective if it doesn't cause civil disturbance or takes place entirely within legal bounds. The limitations governments like the US and UK place on protests is designed specifically to limit their effectiveness. If you stick within the lines all you will achieve is what they want you to achieve. Exactly nothing.

>> ^Fade:
Would democracy exist as we know it if the French hadn't murdered some government officials? lostTurntable you are a moron if you think protest can be effective if it doesn't cause civil disturbance or takes place entirely within legal bounds. The limitations governments like the US and UK place on protests is designed specifically to limit their effectiveness. If you stick within the lines all you will achieve is what they want you to achieve. Exactly nothing.


Wow, first of all 20,000-40,000 people is a bit more than "some government officials." Don't cite the Reign of Terror as a well-orchestrated revolutionary scenario. Protests by their nature CAUSE civil disturbance, but the ones protesting must remain civil. The African-American protesters of the 1950s and 60s who were beaten by cops and had the hoses set loose upon them rarely fought back. Therefore sympathy is given to them. Who else did that? Oh yeah, Gandhi. If that stupid girl at the end of the video wanted to prove her point she should have just sat silently and refused to move, yelling (god knows what) at the cops is idiotic. When the cops act this way against a passive audience they are repressing them, when they act this way against a loud and violent mob they are doing their damn job.

By donning masks (like pathetic COWARDS) and hurling dumpsters, throwing rocks and breaking shit you don't endear anyone to your cause (whatever that is, it's not really clear other than "OMG G20 is bad!" There were many more protests in Pittsburgh that were perfectly civil because the people remained calm. Sorry, when I see stuff like this I see nothing but police regrettably reacting the way they have to when some idiots start acting a damn fool. Innocents got caught in the middle, blame the shitheads with the bandannas, not the cops.

Is it a protest when photographers outnumber protesters 10 to 1 ?

So Fade and blankfist condones the murdering of police officers for the great cause, that is protesting negotiations that may actually do some good.

But why discuss the real issues in an international negotiation, when you can smash windows and party?

^Please, save your hyperbole for another discussion. You seem to agree with the G-20 summit and its potential outcome, so therefore any dissenting voice against it is marred in your eyes. Those who have dissenting opinions, it appears you'd like to categorize as loons or crackpots or violent anarchists.

I believe in a nonviolent approach to solving violations to our rights, however the ever increasing presence of militarized police has been a growing concern for most people in this country. These policemen are trampling on these people's right to freely assemble. You can try to paint them with any broad brush you wish, but you cannot deny them their rights.

I do disagree with the protesters' use of violence (if you can consider a handful of them pushing dumpsters at armed and protected SWAT cops violent), but who knows if it was provoked. Looking at the how the police are overreacting, it does seem that these protesters were possibly provoked. Also, did you see any police officers that were dragged to the ground or beaten with batons? Were any of them attacked so viciously they bled? Did the citizens shoot them with rubber bullets and canisters of tear gas? As someone who has tasted the sting of tear gas, it's no party and shouldn't be something used lightly.

This sort of police violence is becoming more and more common in the States. I hope they end this peacefully, but I also believe if they do not then U.S. citizens will be justified in taking measures to ensure their rights are guaranteed.

I'm willing to bet most of the people there don't even understand what the G20 is, they just see it as world government, and how that has to be bad because..well...Ministry said so in that one song.

I didn't realize citing facts was hyperbole. Those were anarchists, they identified as such and they came there with no other reason other than to pick fights and start shit. That's what they do. They're idiots. They're also cowards, covering their faces, starting shit and then running away so innocent protesters can get the grief for it.

You haven't been to Pittsburgh, I live here. That street they pushed that dumpster down was steep. It could crush someone easily. That is assault. End of story.

And you can't endorse violent revolution AND believe in nonviolence. You're big into Orwell I assume, doublespeak much? If you really think that "When the government takes your 1st Amendment rights, there's always the 2nd Amendment to fall back on. This is when watering the tree of liberty is necessary" then you should sign off your computer, stock up on weapons and get to work. All you anti-govt types who think the police are instituting a police state, 9/11 was an inside job, you have no freedom of speech, etc, you're all a bunch of wussy blowhards. All talk, no action. Get to work and start killing government officials already! Or would you rather someone else do it so you can watch it on YouTube?

^What say you of the students who were inadvertently trapped and attacked? They weren't anarchists. I suppose in your world, justice requires we break a few eggs to make an omlette. And because some of the participants were anarchists, then all dissenting opinions must be those of anarchists, right? Therefore I must be one by your loose, ignorant and poorly thought out logic.

Your brush is broad. Your paint is one color.

>> ^ElJardinero:
Is it a protest when photographers outnumber protesters 10 to 1 ?


You can't be both? It's like an insurance policy for some.

Camera is the new gun. That's the new catchphrase.

>> ^LostTurntable:
>>blame the shitheads with the bandannas, not the cops.


More and more now those shitheads are turning out to be undercover cops themselves, agent provocateurs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow
http://www.videosift.com/video/G20-Epic-Undercover-Police-Fail

>> ^blankfist:
^What say you of the students who were inadvertently trapped and attacked? They weren't anarchists. I suppose in your world, justice requires we break a few eggs to make an omlette. And because some of the participants were anarchists, then all dissenting opinions must be those of anarchists, right? Therefore I must be one by your loose, ignorant and poorly thought out logic.
Your brush is broad. Your paint is one color.


I called those students innocent bystanders, if you actually read what I wrote. They got stuck in the crossfire and that sucks. But the crossfire was started by the anarchists! There were anarchists there. That's a fact. They organized the protest! They're the ones who started shit and they're the ones you should be upset with. I never said anything about everyone there being an anarchist. Do you think in binary or something?

You're the one citing the Reign Of Terror is an acceptable means of revolution. That's the definition of breaking eggs to make an omelet.

And if there really were cops posing as anarchists starting shit that's fucked up. Of course, if the coward anarchist a-holes stopped covering their faces then we wouldn't have that problem either. And if the protests were completely non-violent and passive, then the cops wouldn't be able to do that.

I'm done arguing with you about this. We're both retarded for doing it.

>> ^LostTurntable:

And if there really were cops posing as anarchists starting shit that's fucked up. Of course, if the coward anarchist a-holes stopped covering their faces then we wouldn't have that problem either. And if the protests were completely non-violent and passive, then the cops wouldn't be able to do that.


Keep in mind there is a difference between little "a" anarchism and big "A" Anarchism. Most true anarchists don't engage in violent, property-destroying protest.

I liked the one from wearechange better -- there it really did make me sympathetic towards the protesters (in part because that's clearly what they were, and in part because they clearly showed the whole incident from start to finish). This just looks like they're trying to make a big deal over nothing.

The people on the stairs weren't attacked in any way they showed, it seemed like they just got affected by the tear gas that was fired on the street. They weren't even "trapped" for more than what? A minute? Two?

I always feel manipulated when the people positing stuff like this have a definite agenda (I don't mean you blankfist, I mean the YouTube poster), put a stilted title on it, and then the video comes off seeming quite inconclusive.

Maybe the police were doing evil. Certainly the girl getting hit at the end is pretty indefensible. But the bit about being "trapped" and "attacked" seems like a huge overstatement of what's shown.

Re: Lots of things
Re: masks
Citizens have a right to anonymity and freedom of travel. They have no compulsion to identify themselves. The police are supposed to identify themselves. So to those who talk about the masked protesters you should realize that they will be harassed and arrasted if identified on any footage shot by news cameras (not just what is shown to viewers, all footage shot) while the police hide their identities in an illegal fashion.

Re: anarchists "started it"
The police have to be held accountable for their own actions as all individuals should. Whatever 20 people out of an entire city of people do, they cannot control what the police do to other innocent people. Futhermore I don't see why the police would want to make themselves seem so weak so as to suggest they were being controlled by just a few people and that is why they were attacking innocent citizens.

Re: the stairs
The police should get in trouble for attacking people at their private residence. No warrants issued as far as I know.

Re: "Unlawful Assembly"
They kept saying that on their PA system. I thought the constitution specifically prohibits making assembly illegal! That should be the law most easily identifiable as unconstitutional.

Re: Torture
The use of teargas, rubber bullets, painfully loud sound, etc. should be illegal as they are forms of torture. Causing pain in order to get someone to do as you want is torture.

Re: Nonviolence
This can only work if people protest whenever and wherever they want. Nonviolent protest has to be disruptive in some way in order to provoke a response that is one-sided. I freaking love Ghandhi and the non-violence movements. They are great example as to why we don't need armed military or police anymore. A mass of peaceful and nice people always beats raw brutality.

Re: revolution
All these kind of oppressive actions make me very sad for my child who may have to endure a full-on revolt. I don't know why the fat cats who control the government want to die at the hands of the coming revolution but they sure don't seem to be holding back any provocation. I myself get sad when I have to kill a fly but I am sure most are not so gentle. As the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows and as it becomes more and more clear that the rich control the government I don't see how people can react any other way. It is just a matter of time. Unless you can take the money out of government and heal millions of wounds already inflicted by one side.

-Karl

Cmon those stairs are not part of the "private residence" Yes it is part of Pitt's property, but it is NOT part of the dormitories, it's a bridge from the dormitories to a classroom building. AND they were not on the bridge, they were on the stairs that went down to the street, which does not go to the classrooms. The students got too close and got burned, end of story. I work at Pitt, and I went to Penn State, I saw PLENTY of riots. You can easily get yourself out of harms way when you see police coming. They clearly gave them multple chances to leave the area. First Amendment :

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This was NOT a peacable assembly. It clearly had anarchists included, therefore this is not covered under the first amendment. I feel bad for the students that got hit with tear gas for being too close, but that is a risk you run by standing too close to an non-peaceable assembly.

Universities are private property, unless they had permission to be there, or they had a warrant. If you have to pay to go to the school, that property is technically private. Though, I'm sure the university will say: "Oh yeah, it's cool they were there."

Where was MSNBC covering these loons?

I'm mostly concerned about the term unlawful assembly. The 1st amendment gives us the right to free assembly. At what point did we have to get our assemblies approved?

The cops should just watch over the crowd and make arrests for crimes rather than just attacking the assembly of protesters.

Alright, people. One of my best friends goes to the University of Pittsburgh and he was in the middle of the whole thing. Most of the "protesters" were just students curious about what was going on. He wrote this about it all:

"This note is for my friends who are not in Pittsburgh and have not yet been given a fairly comprehensive version of what has been going on here. If you have been seeing my wall posts, you'll know that something bad happened in Pittsburgh, but if you want my story, here it is...

On Thursday and Friday September 24-25, the G-20 World Leader's Summit occurred in Pittsburgh. The summit involved the leaders of the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The purpose of the summit is to have a forum for the major world leaders about the global economic crisis. Pittsburgh was chosen to be the location for the summit in order to highlight its economic recovery after the city's manufacturing industry collapsed about 40 years ago.

The G-20 is always met with protesters for various causes, including global warming awareness, socialism, peoples' rights in other countries, anti-free-trade, and anti-war, and anarchy. The city of Pittsburgh was required to bring in police forces from all regions of the state of Pennsylvania and other nearby states.

On the evening of the 24th, the summit began with a dinner in the Phipps Conservatory, a plant exhibition hall (really quite a nice place) just under a mile from my dorm in the borough of Oakland. The University cancelled classes after 4:00 PM that day in order to ensure that students did not have to be outside if they did not wish to. During the day of the 24th, several protests had been broken up by riot police. At about 7:00 PM a small protest began at the Schenley Plaza. (from this point on, I will be referring to locations on campus, please refer to the map I posted at:< http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs209.snc1/7620_178174626232_559501232_4081545_8066324_n.jpg>)

I went there to investigate myself at about 8:00 PM. The protest itself was fairly small, only about a hundred or so people total, with only a handful of protesters. There was some live music and dancing, courtesy of the Hare Krishna. Despite the fact that the protest was fairly small and peaceful, there were several hundred police forming a perimeter around the plaza, which is under a quarter-mile from the Conservatory. All of the Police were in riot gear, which covered any form of identification they may have had; they were also all armed with lethal and non-lethal weapons.

Around 9:00, I decided to return to my dorm. At 10:15, I overheard someone saying that they saw fire on Forbes Avenue. I decided to go out and investigate. At this point, the street had been flooded by curious students, and would remain that way until the police removed them. Several dumpsters had been pushed into the intersection of Forbes and Atwood by anarchist protesters. The next intersection had a overturned dumpster with flaming garbage spilled on the street. Several shop windows had been broken by a protester from California, however the media initially implicated that it had been students who were responsible.

I reached the lawn of the Pitt Union, and at about 10:45 the police began to multiply rapidly. They also brought in several scary-looking trucks with large dish-shaped things on them. This turned out to be a Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which emits a loud, scary noise which is physically disabling within a certain radius. At 11:00 PM, the trucks began playing a pre-recorded message declaring that the people in the streets had become an "illegal gathering" and that the crowd was to disperse, or they could be subject to arrest or attack with "less lethal" weaponry (does that mean you're less dead when you get hit?)

At this, I decided to retreat to Forbes Hall. Other people were not fortunate enough to get out of there as quickly as I did, and became exposed to a hail of "OC" gas, rubber bullets, mace, LRAD blasts, and nightsticks. The University unfortunately decided to lock down the residence halls as the police approached, giving the retreating students nowhere to go to escape from the police. One of my friends was arrested while holding open the doors to the Litchfield Towers residence hall lobby so that escaping students had somewhere to go. She was dragged outside of the doorway, beaten to the ground, not given any rights, held for five hours, and released without any charge as of yet.

At the time, I was unaware of this, but I watched the police advance through the lower campus (residential area, mainly between Forbes and Fifth avenues) via the live feed on the local news. When I noticed that they were three blocks away from Forbes Hall, I went to the patio on the second floor of the hall (out of reach of anyone who didn't live there or have a friend there). At about midnight, the cops were in front of the hall, still chasing a small group of protesters despite being nearly a mile from the original protest ground and being practically at the end of the campus. Without any real warning, they threw several canisters of "OC" gas onto the patio. Unknown to me at the time, several also entered the lobby and threatened to mace several students who were unable to enter the hall due to the lockdown.

OC gas is for all intents and purposes the same as tear gas. When you inhale it, your lungs and throat itch and you can't do anything but cough. If it gets in your eyes, you become partially blind and it feels like your eyes are melting. I was several feet away from a grenade and was directly exposed to it for several seconds as my fellow students and I tried to escape. I ran to my bathroom on the sixth floor and flushed my eyes and choked for five minutes. The third floor had window open out of which the students had been looking, it was filled with gas, and the students living on the third floor became refugees for several hours while it cleared.

Shortly after passing Forbes hall, the police attack ended. They left Oakland with 42 arrests (most were let go that morning), and a large number of unfairly treated, assaulted, and pissed students. The university itself has yet to make any statement regarding Thursday night, but the Mayor of Pittsburgh and Chief of Police have stated that they are "proud of how well the police handled the situation". They are apparently not fans of students either.

I will save my personal commentary and descriptions of the aftermath for another note. However, here are a few links that you will find interesting.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNeD4rHUF4A> a compilation of student-made videos from 9/24.
The videos are of varying quality and contain some harsh language and violence. These will give you an idea of what the students here experienced (I know the person being dragged away at 2:35)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6aRrQz7224> This video was not taken by me, but it was taken from my vantage point when Forbes Hall was attacked
<http://www.pittnews.com/> Pitt's student newspaper, featuring independent coverage of the G-20 (and some rather good photography, the ones I took came out terribly)
<http://www.pittbriefly.com/> A blog on which many videos of the G-20 'riot' have been posted. Some of these cannot be found on Youtube.

Thank you for reading this,
......."

With all those cameras, if this is the worst that can be find then it proves that the police did a pretty good job of dealing with the situation given there WHERE violent rioters amongst many of the legitimate protesters there.

don't you know we're fightin' a war that we can't win. they hate us, we hate them.

I hate the dehumanization of Police... they're just guys doing a job. They give ample warning to leave the area before moving in and using tear gas, these people are stupid if they think that the police will not try to clear out "observers" as well, since they too were ordered to clear the area.

I'm just going to point out this video edits out the part with the students on the staircase being allowed to pass by the cops at the top. I have a feeling that was simply a case of cops being given orders and sticking to them.. up till they realized the kids had no where to go and allowed them to pass.

*dead

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