Occupy Pittsburgh comes to Oakland
By: Amy Friedenberger & Joe Chilson / The Pitt News Staff
Posted on 03. Nov, 2011 in News
Occupy Pittsburgh protesters wanted to march in solidarity with California’s Occupy Oakland protests, so it’s only natural that they marched in the Oakland neighborhood Wednesday night.
More than 100 protesters, who currently have a camp set up in Mellon Green, met in Schenley Plaza and began their march around Oakland at 6:30 p.m. The protest, which lasted for more than two hours, was meant to support the efforts of the protestors in Occupy Oakland, whose camp was raided by police last Tuesday.
Unlike the events in California, the protest remained peaceful. One person was taken into police custody toward the end of the protest, when protesters tried to enter an event held by the Pitt student group Students for Justice in Palestine. Police initially denied entry to protesters who were not Pitt students before allowing them in at about 10 p.m.
Pitt junior Liam Swanson, a poetry and history major, said he was at the march to “stand in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and to protest police brutality.”
The group marched down Forbes Avenue to Litchfield Towers, where they chanted, “Out of the dorms and into the streets.” The group then tried to enter the Cathedral of Learning, which was locked. By 7:30 p.m. the march had spilled off the sidewalk and into the streets. The protestors marched down the middle of Bigelow Boulevard and into the bus lane on Fifth Avenue, chanting and playing music from a PA system being transported in a shopping cart.
City police, who had been following the demonstrators throughout the evening, responded to the protesters by telling them to get back onto the sidewalks and sounding sirens from their cars. The protesters responded with chants of “Whose streets? Our streets.”
Eventually the group settled in front of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall to decry the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and express their support for Occupy Oakland. Standing in front of a black and white banner spelling out “Fight Strike Occupy,” war veterans and general protesters took to the microphone to express their discontent.
“We come here in solidarity with Occupy Oakland,” one protester shouted.
Protesters were specifically angry about the case of Scott Olsen, a veteran of two tours in Iraq, who was hit in the head by a projectile thrown by Oakland police during last Tuesday’s confrontation. Olsen has become an accidental symbol of the movement. Media outlets are reporting that Olsen’s skull is fractured, leaving him unable to talk.
The Occupy movement began Sept. 17 when Occupy Wall Street formed in Zuccotti Park in New York City. Since then, more than 900 Occupy movements have begun worldwide. The Occupy Pittsburgh movement started Oct. 15 with a kick-off march and rally. The group set up camp at Mellon Green, but leaves the camp periodically to protest in different areas.
45-year-old Helen Gerhardt of Point Breeze, said that after her return from her tour in Iraq as a Marine, many people thanked her for her service, but she didn’t see why people should thank her for what she did.
“All I did was damage and hurt lots of innocent people,” Gerhardt said.
About 10 people spoke before the group began marching down the stairs of Soldiers & Sailors to head back toward Forbes Avenue.
Students for Justice in Palestine President Ryan Branagan invited the protesters into an SJP event in David Lawrence Hall at 8:30 p.m. following the protest, which was already open to the public. However, Pitt police closed the door to anyone who was not a Pitt student, including Gerhardt.
“I think a lot of people just got scared,” Branagan said as to why the police reacted defensively in allowing the protesters to enter the University building for the lecture.
One man was arrested outside of David Lawrence Hall at 9:40 p.m. for failure to leave the building after being told to do so by police.
Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said that he needed the proper permit from Students for Justice in Palestine to make sure that the group was allowed to host an event. After Branagan gave Delaney a copy of the permit, he allowed about 10 remaining non-Pitt student protesters to enter the event.
“What we’ve experienced in the past few years ... we get a little antsy,” Delaney said, referring to the vandalism that occurred during the G-20 Summit in the fall of 2009.
15 Responses to “Occupy Pittsburgh comes to Oakland”
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Scott Olsen was injured by fellow protesters, not by police officers.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19235491?source=rss
The article you linked to makes no such claim. Care to offer any evidence? Perhaps you meant “it’s more likely he was injured by fellow protestors” because all that article says is that the police dept. doesn’t believe any of its employees could be responsible.
That’s not what that article says- did you read it?
Yeah and those crazy Oakland radicals also definitely threw a CSI-manufactured flash bang grenade right at Scott Olsen’s head while he was lying on the ground bleeding!! Oh wait…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLyUK0t0vQ
Violence by the protesters needs to be addressed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc_brjWJqZk&feature=player_embedded
And what do those who stand with the Oakland, CA protesters say regarding the rampant vandalism and destruction of property?
Ryan did not invite them to the event. Eric Reidy did. Good reporting.
That’s a lie. You’re just a puppet for the 1%
Amazing that cops saying they didn’t hurt Olsen immediately makes it so they didn’t. Innocent until proven guilty, yes, but the police as a whole are not innocent in any protest matter. They are often violent, angry, and attack unprovoked. Worse than kitties. Plus they have weapons and impunity. Look at the pittsburgh G-20, folks.
Whining about property destruction and vandalism on the part of protestors is pathetic. When capitalism and the state is murdering in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world we call it a necessary (for what?) war and leave it at that. When a few people toss bottles as the pigs, they’re practically labeled as domestic terrorists. The State is a domestic terrorist. What was the police dog for during the march last night? To terrorize the protestors into doing what the police said.
Also, a cop told me he was going to make an example out of me, a clear threat, then when I asked for his badge number he drew his baton and approached me until fellow protestors pulled me away from the rampaging pig.
“Whining about property destruction and vandalism on the part of protestors is pathetic. ”
How about sexual groping?
How about Rape?
How about assault?
How about theft?
How about…….
People get assaulted, raped, so on every day in our patriarchal violent society. If we were to condemn groups based on a few sex offenders and violent shits within the group, then the police, lawyers, politicians, teachers, professors, kids, white people, and punk rockers would all need to be condemned and the violence within addressed. Your singling out the protestors for this (usually lacking but always necessary) criticism shows a clear prejudice against them.
“People get assaulted, raped, so on every day in our patriarchal violent society”
Yes, and the people report it to the police. The OWS folks somehow believe it is wrong to bring in the police. That shows a hive mind that is clearly lacking in rational thought.
I am pretty sure that the amount of violent acts and criminal behavior among the OWS family is many times higher than that of 99% of society.
“Your singling out the protestors for this (usually lacking but always necessary) criticism shows a clear prejudice against them.”.
It would be prejudice if I formed my opinion about them before witnessing the violence, the filth, the destruction, and the chaos they have caused. Read a dictionary before you start using big words.
WOW. That you suggest that crime is higher proporionately within ‘the 99%’ is outrageous. Have you not noticed how many individuals from ‘the 1%’, or descendants of, or those who are desperately trying to be a part of the 1% have come out publicly accusing those within their ranks of committing horrendous crimes against them? WOW.
“When capitalism and the state is murdering in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world we call it a necessary (for what?) war and leave it at that.”
When are these people going to understand the difference between true free market capitalism and crony capitalism (a.k.a. crony capitalism). All of your apple products and lattes from Starbucks are an example of free market capitalism. Bailing out banks, defense contractors in Iraq, federal student loans to colleges, ObamaCare, various forms of regulation, fannie and freddie mac (a.k.a the housing bubble) are examples of crony capitalism or corporatism. Please understand the difference before you make ignorant comments like capitalism causes this….
Love the article, Chilson. I would love to see more of this author’s work in the news. I thought this was actually a really balanced piece, considering all the bias we see today when inundated with the 24-hour news cycle. I hope to see a lot more reporting like this in the future, because, when we really think about it, biases (on all sides) tend to just end up aggravating matters rather than working towards a solution.
You see how much panic surrounds the most peaceful Palestine events:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbnT1hmdD-w
It is time to revive the Pitt campaign to divest from Israel.