PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

When your protector becomes your enemy
by Brian / John Saturday, Apr. 12, 2003 at 1:16 AM

A day of protesting comes to a violent end, and the police laugh at us.

A quiet and peaceful protest, composed of three 16 year olds simply holding a sign that says "Bush = Killer" with a body count of Iraqi civilians killed by our bombs and bullets was confronted by three misinformed Bush supporters. We walked at least 4 miles up and down West Liberty Ave. in Dormont and through Mt. Lebanon, and everything went well. Of course we got the occasional finger, but it seems we got more thumbs up than "fuck you"s. It ended around 8:30pm walking towards the Co-Gos in Dormont, where we were confronted by these three adamant Bush supporters, who thought it would be cool to grab up and rip our sign up. They were at least 20-25 years of age, and they ran up to us, grabbed us, threw us up against a glass door and a brick wall at Campiti's. We stood our ground and tried to pull our sign back, but they tore it up anyway. We ran inside the restaurant and dialed 911. We were surprised, within only 10 seconds 3 squad cars reported to the scene, with the guys who slammed us up against the wall speeding off in their cars. The police had asked what happened, and the second they heard we had a "Bush = Killer" sign, they started smirking, rolling their eyes, and laughing at us. They told us we were just trying to get attention and thought it was a big joke. The people in the restaurant said they hadn't seen anything, even though they saw the whole thing. After about 5 minutes, a very nice woman came out and told the police what had happened. Even though her story was the exact same thing as ours, the police still tried to say we were lying and wouldn't take us seriously. They said our sign was "cute", sarcastically. We called them because we were looking for help, and all we got was a spit in the face by Dormont's finest.

John: I am sad to say that before this happened I hadn't thought cops were that bad, because of their fair treatment at the J26th rally in Oakland, but now...oink oink.

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