Editorial: Why G-20 news still matters

The G-20 Summit and its protests are now more than a month removed from Pittsburgh’s streets. Many students just want to move on. Sometimes The Pitt News does, too.

Nothing quite matches that momentary hysteria though, and by comparison, any ensuing news can seem trivial at best. Newspapers that continue G-20 coverage can appear to be sadistic toward dead horses.

Though thrilling aspects have passed, students remain affected by a more pedestrian aftermath. Rather than relaying the adrenaline-fueled panic of being shot in the back by rubber bullets, media outlets are left with covering court proceedings and internal investigations.

It’s no stork delivery to the Jolie-Pitt family, but it’s still news. This leaves each outlet with a tough question: How much is too much?

For news junkies, too much is never enough. Part of this publication’s constitution requires us to deliver not only up-to-date information, but also historical documentation. The insights gained from reporting on an issue need to be recorded, if not for current readers, then for some future inquisitor curiously pouring over archives in search of an answer to an as-yet unasked question.

However, college newspapers are also expected to get overloaded students through a stressful day. Students need the news, and they need it in a format conducive to reading between — or during — classes.

In an ideal world, every issue could strike a happy medium, but that isn’t the case. Only so much print space exists, and sometimes that means deciding whether to cover breaking details on a saturated topic or move on. When this time comes, The Pitt News will likely choose the former. That might seem repetitive, even like an easy way out, but it is the result of specific reasoning.

Ongoing court cases involve Pitt students. The outcomes of these cases will affect classmates’ futures and maybe even their attendance at this University.

The Pitt Police Blotter chronicles arrest students every week, and a follow-up story is rare for them, so what is the difference? Unlike those students, though, G-20 arrestees are being herded through the justice system. Many students said they were innocent but still accepted community service deals, fearing unsympathetic judges and self-contradicting police testimony.

After alleged civil rights abuses, a judicial bureaucracy made these students feel more helpless. One result is a general distrust, maybe even contempt, for institutions meant to protect students.

On the flip side, some people who are actually guilty might be attempting to slip by based on the confusion generated from so many claims of wrongful arrest. Overworked police officers struggle to remember crucial details about their actions. Some acted properly, but some acted with reckless impropriety.

In recent court proceedings, some officers could not even recall the exact circumstances of specific arrests, including exactly how the students had allegedly violated the law. Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said, “I am moving forward.” He just wants to move on.

Uncritically forgetting the past abandons those still affected by it, and future students are denied critical records.

This is where historical documentation comes in. These are the moments everyone can take to learn for the next time — and learn further information than just more efficient ways to disband a large gathering.

Right now, students are being bullied into plea deals because no one is helping them do otherwise. Until someone does, their stories need to be told, even if it sometimes gets tedious. In many ways it only seems repetitive because it has happened to an unprecedented number of students.

It’s not necessarily our place to advocate for these students, but it’s definitely not our role to ignore their stories.