PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Community members gather to discuss M20 DA
by Danny P Friday, Mar. 19, 2004 at 5:52 PM
dannyp@indypgh.org

Organizers with the Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) and interested community members met Friday night to plan direct action for March 20th

Organizers with POG and community members met in a room on Friday night on the Pitt campus to discuss plans for Saturday's direct action on the campus of Carnegie Mellon.

Legal support forms were distributed, and then information about the action itself went through. Essentially all of the information discussed is also available in POG's FAQ for M20.

The tone of the meeting was to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. People shared rumors about planned police action (violence) or inaction, and there was a general excitement and tension that was easily felt in the room.

There was also discussion of what charges people might end up facing in the event of arrest. While none of the discussion constituted formal legal advice, organizers mentioned that they have contacted lawyers and have National Lawyers Guild (NLG) support in case of arrests. An organizer reported that the NLG told them that in the thousand of arrests for sit-ins in recent decades, none that did not involve property destruction- and there was a repeated emphasis that no property destruction is being planned by the organizers with POG- not one person had been sentenced to jail time.

The most emphasis was placed on the message that organizers are hoping for a peaceful and non-destructive direct action at Carnegie Mellon, that while the organizers respect diversity of tactics they ask that people taking part in this action comply with their request to be peaceful, and that should the police violently repress the crowd or deny entry to the sit-in location that the event organized by POG activists will officially be over and people are free to do whatever they want (leave, form a spontaneous action, go on to their own plan-B, etc.)

The following number was given at the meeting for the Thomas Merton Center's support team: 412-361-3022

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