community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Police break-up sit-in at the waterfront
by Max Hurwitz
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 3:16 PM
info@zi-activism.net 412 422-5305
Articles about the attempted sit-in at the waterfront
The non-violent protest planned for today 4/27 at the Waterfront has been broken up by Munhall Homestead and Allegheny County Police. The protesters tried to bring signs into the mall but were turned away at the entrance to the mall by police. Other activists went to the Starbucks and created signs on their t-shirts. The police said that if any action took place we would be ordered to leave or arrested. Reporters from City Paper, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fox 53, Daily News (McKeesport) were forbidden to take photographs, notes, and interview those present for the protest. More details coming right up!
full story
by Max Hurwitz
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 3:55 PM
info@zi-activism.net 412 422-5305
I reached the Waterfront Mall about noon today at 4/27 to scout out the location for the protest planned at 1, and was surprised by the large police presence. Dogs, bike cops, paddy wagons, ambulances, undercover police, detectives. Without doing anything but bike through the mall I was immediately confronted by borough bike cops and asked �are you here for a protest?�. They said I looked suspicious because I was calling somebody on a cell phone. I told them that I was calling my friend who�s supposed to meet me here at 1. They informed me that there was a police presence of 1,000 and that if anyone tries to gather and protest against the war they will be arrested. I tried to make small talk with the police to gauge their aggressiveness and realized that they would be polite as long as I was there just to shop but they would be eager to arrest if I showed any sign of protest.
I biked around the parking lot trying to get in contact other members of Zi and was followed by the police throughout the whole mall, everywhere I biked they followed. At one point I sat down on the bench and a police officer in plain clothes with an ear-piece and wire along his side sat down beside me to listen to my phone conversations. At that point I rode out of the mall to meet Saleh on 8th Ave. to figure out what we were going to do in dealing with this level of police presence.
We went back into the mall and met a few other activists there for the sit-in. At this point I learned from reporters that the police were not allowing media to bring cameras or notebooks into the square around Starbucks. A City Paper reporter told me that he was threatened with arrest just for having a notepad out. One reporter went as far as going to the bridge overlooking the mall to get photographs of the protest, and she also had to sneak photographs inside the mall and interview us without her notebook whenever the cops weren�t looking.
Saleh and I decided that if we could not bring posters in we would write anti-war message on our clothes, which did not seem to provoke the police, although we were eventually asked to leave having done nothing more than wearing anti-war clothing in the mall. The cops rode by us and said told us that they were getting great overtime pay for easy work, so we should do this every weekend. Is that a challenge?
I saw an older couple sitting on a bench near us as we wrote on each other�s shirts, they seemed to wonder what we were doing and why the police had such a great interest in us. Our presence didn�t seem to offend any of the shoppers, in fact they seemed amused by what we were doing there. It makes me wonder why the police and the management of the shopping center were so determined to get rid of us if we weren�t harming their shoppers� experience. Our goal was to show a presence of peace activists that haven�t given in to the idea that this war is over, as most of our country seems to believe. Confrontation was not the focus. Information sharing and non-violent demonstration was. The police did not care. They had orders that nothing out of the ordinary would happen in the waterfront mall that day, no matter how peaceful it was meant to be, and they should get rid of anyone who might challenge that happy little shopping kingdom. .
I left with Tom to get a few photographs outside of the mall with a reporter from the Daily News (McKeesport). Upon returning to the mall area we were stopped by police and told that we had already been asked to leave, why had we returned? This was a lie. At this point I had not been asked to leave but saying so to the police made no difference. Thus I was told I had to leave the Waterfront immediately or be arrested where I stood, and I could not return into the mall. The police had all the entranced blocked. They knew my face by that point, and they knew the car I was using. When I was escorted from the mall the police looked at my license for their records of who they kicked out of the Waterfront that day. They told me that it was easier to do things this way� as opposed to what other way I do not know.
random supplements
by Saleh
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 4:03 PM
info@zi-activism.net
Just some other stuff that happened:
We gathered around the courtyard by the Starbucks and had sneaked in a lot of markers. We made peace signs, wrote stuff like "1 million Iraqis dead by US/UN in 10 yrs - war", smiley faces, drawings of fingers with the peace sign. There was also a little bit of drumming and music, and we distributed some "Free Hugs" stickers and plain white Peace t-shirts for those who didn't want to get their clothes messed up by our clandestine markers. As we were writing people passing stopped to read and see what we were up to. Reporters were surprised by how they weren't allowed to do almost anything, and had to sneak-interview people or go away from the mall with people to interview them.
Apparently the cops were stopping a lot of people at the mall entrances if they saw peace signs, so some people never made it in altho we had some people posted to watch out for this. When Max and I were kicked out I was told that they had been stopping other people bringing signs and that's why they wanted us out, even though I explained that we were just standing there. One cop stayed with Max the whole time till he left, and they told us what route they wanted us to leave by. They had stopped Max, who was driving my car returning from talking with a reporter, in the middle of the mall blocking traffic.
After Max and I got kicked out we saw them kick out the other protesters just for standing there.
I think it is a challenge
by Dan P.
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 5:12 PM
The cops rode by us and said told us that they were getting great overtime pay for easy work, so we should do this every weekend. Is that a challenge?
I think this is a challenge. I'm not going to spread Zi politics to indymedia, and I'm certainly not speaking on behalf of Zi here, but I think this is the kind of action that's needed- people individually expressing themselves in an entirely nonconfrontational way.
Not that I'm against confrontation, in fact, I'm all for it, but if you look at what police have been doing lately they will create the confrontation for us. For as long as people are getting massive police presences and then getting thrown out of places for doing nothing more than wearing anti-war clothing, then that's what should be done. At this stage, I feel it's what's appropriate.
What I'd like to see is groups of people scheduling times to go to different areas. Not going to sit, or block traffic, but just going to walk around and enjoy the Pittsburgh air, perhaps shop, etc. at places like the waterfront and the mall. Oh, except everyone would be wearing a plain white t-shirt with anti-war messages on them. Imagine being in a mall and seeing hundreds of people walking around with "I oppose [insert adjective here] war in all of its forms" shirts. Not walking around as a unit, or marching, or cheering, or holding signs, just walking around.
It has the effect of making everyday people realize that peace activists are just every day people that go around and like to enjoy fresh air, etc. but it also sends a message that we're here and we're organized.
It's an organized unorganized protest and I think groups should look into organizing more of them.
how many
by Evan N
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 7:02 PM
how many people would you estimate came to it to protest?
clarification on arrests, #s
by Saleh
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 7:14 PM
info@zi-activism.net 412 654-6047
A clarification on arrests as there've been a lot of calls asking about this: there were no arrests. There were mysterious dissapearance tho - when some of the protesters were returning from talking to reporters at the edge of the mall they were stopped in the middle of the mall and could not return to the Starbucks courtyard, and so no one knew where they went. Max was borrowing my car, and I was later ordered (from the courtyard) to go in a certain direction 'cause the cops were holding my car (in the middle of the street, blocking traffic). When I got there Max and I were made to leave, so we couldn't make it back to the courtyard to explain to others what happened. Also some of the other people with cell phones had been forced to leave before everyone else, so we lost contact with the people remaining in the courtyard but we saw them get kicked out from a distance. No arrests as far as I know.
As for #s, I personally didn't see more than 10 protesters in the courtyard itself. There were others who said they would be bringing people an hour later, but I doubt they came after everyone else was kicked out (we called the other contacts when the last people were kicked out). I was told there were at least 20 but I didn't see any more. The cops were saying there were many others turned away at the mall entrances, and some people who did get thru said that they were stopped at the mall entrance and had to walk in from outside the mall. But I didn't get the sense that this was a large #.
It would have been more effective if we had more people, but it was still somewhat effective as there were a lot of non-protesters in the area who saw our signs and saw that even tho we weren't doing anything they minded, the cops were following us around and giving their walkie talkies a good workout. Some of the reporters were especially ticked by the threats the police made to them.
The police attitude and mass presence made it a worst-case scenario, and we had intended to have a symbolic presence for that scenario. It was so bad that Max wasn't even allowed to completely scout out the area before the protest - they just saw a guy on a bike with a cell phone and tagged him.
ps
by Saleh
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 7:30 PM
ps - I was told by other protesters that the mayor of one of the boroughs was there, but I can't confirm that myself. It seems like they totally overblew it.
sit in
by laughing inside
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2003 at 9:19 PM
I came down to the waterfront at around 1pm for the sit in. I walked past the Starbucks and saw about 5 people outside and lots of police everywhere so I thought it was cancelled and I left. Sorry. I should have stayed. I did see reporters on the outskirts of the malls standing there confused. And I heard people asking each other "what's going on?" At least their questioning at the overabundance of cops for a few peace demonstrators may have made them see something today.
odd
by Evan N
Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 7:18 AM
I wonder why so many cops for a small event then hardly any for the reconvergence? Like at ther econvergence if the crowd would have turned insubordinate of the police they couldn't have controlled it until reinforcements or whatever arrived. then they get a hundred or so for a 10 person sit in at starbucks. the police work in mysterious ways
A hunch
by Dan P.
Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 9:42 AM
There was a massive police presence because the waterfront is filled with expensive stores where rich privliged people shop on weekends.
Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, Gap, Express, etc.
It scares them that people advocating radical change even *go* to these places without first covering their anti-war slogans with an expensive cardigan. And that's why I say we continue to go- not to disrupt, not to disturb, just to walk around (and even shop, if appropriate) and wear clothing that expresses how we feel.
distribution o' cops
by Saleh
Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 10:30 AM
yeah, it was wierd about the cops. From what I understand on Saturday the city cops actually tried to stop the march on the excuse that they didn't have enough cops to go with it! Of course, it didn't work.
One other difference tho is that on Saturday it was the City of Pittsburgh cops, whereas for the Waterfront it was borough + county cops. The city's got a major budget crisis, I've heard they don't even allow police to work overtime anymore altho I don't have a good source for it. Not like those boroughs can afford to pay for a lot of the police either, but of course it's ridiculous that they came at all.
Doctor's Strike
by -
Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 10:45 AM
There is a doctor's strike in station square today. They are whining about the cost of their insurance. How many arrests, how many cops?
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