Photos from Thursday's Anti-G20 "People's Uprising"

thursday sep 24--occupied pittsburgh
click to bigify
photos below by Skadi

demonstrators gathered at arsenal park at 40th and Penn at 2:30 before a planned unpermitted march.  a side of the park was lined with riot police.  approx. 1500 by our estimate attended

a smaller student feeder march came from the Oakland neighborhood

lots of anarchists (though not all in the black bloc)

leaving the park

lots and lots of media

after going only about 5 blocks toward downtown, pittsburgh police formed a blockade featuring an LRAD sonic weapon alternating between deafening sirens and dispersal orders.  about the LRAD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device

soon thereafter marchers split in several different directions.  members of a black bloc threw dumpsters and other objects in the streets and eluded hundreds of police, despite being desperately outnumbered.

most regrouped at friendship park, back away from downtown

and many continued elsewhere in the city, where some corporate shop windows were broken and riot lines formed again.  the vast majority of the demonstrations did not involved property destruction, and we witnessed no violence from protesters was witnessed.

someone had a beef with this Boston Market

hundreds of local and Maryland police formed lines on 4 cross streets of Baum Boulevard, restricting traffic long after demonstrators left.  After the afternoon demonstrations, 23 arrests had been confirmed.

this man (in mask)was detained by police shortly after the BMW window was broken.  he walked across the KFC parking lot as a riot line marched down the sidewalk; police charged him and he put his hands up and dropped the water bottle he was holding.  police gave him the OK to leave, but as he was doing so a loose cannon commander came from another direction and detained the man.  the commander screamed at the man and nearby media and observers, threatening all with a trespassing arrest.  eventually, the man was able to leave without giving an ID (he wasn't carrying one).

pittsburgh welcomes the world...

smoke bombs at liberty and baum blvd

photos below by haloka and g

unpermitted march at arsenal park - tons of media

"my reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government"

arsenal park

this is what LRAD sonic weapons look like (sorry for blurriness - we took good quality video, watch for it later).  at this distance, the noise is extremely painful.

this was the second police blockade of several hundred officers, 2-3 blocks behind the first blockade w/ LRAD... just in case the march got through, i guess.  it didn't.

more of blockade #2

putting on gas masks

2009 stanley cup champions

black bloc prevents police vehicles from following them up a sidestreet

this guy in a cow suit stopped the advancing police in back by dancing in the middle of the street, attracting a gaggle of 15-20 journalists.  meanwhile, the march behind the camera advanced 2-3 blocks and escaped the cops.

several dumpsters were pushed down hills towards the cops

Later, BMW windows were broken

As well as almost every window at a nearby Boston Market