Activists with the Thomas Merton Center and other groups yesterday said police, not protesters, were to blame for the confrontation on Oakland streets Friday night, when officers in body armor fired gas and arrested more than 100 people, including students and journalists. Police and city officials defended their decisions, saying they needed to act to prevent a second night of property damage.
"As a whole, the police department responded admirably," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "Nobody was significantly injured," he said, which "showed that we were prepared, and it showed that we kept everybody safe." Nonetheless, he said there would be an internal review of all aspects of the city's handling of the summit.
There was debate, too, over whether the summit was a net economic winner. Some officials claimed it generated $35 million in direct spending in the city and three times that in media exposure. But business owners complained they lost business due to heavy security measures that left the Downtown with a small fraction of its normal work force.
Joe McGrath, president of VisitPittsburgh, said the summit brought $35 million in direct spending on hotels, meals, taxi and limousine service, convention center set-up, and extras like the Japanese delegation's request for 200 bottles of Pennsylvania red wine.
And then there's the international media exposure that the city received from hosting the summit. Bill Flanagan, executive vice president for corporate relations at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said the news media coverage was the equivalent of $100 million worth of advertising.
The Allegheny Conference is already in talks with one foreign business that wants to consider a Pittsburgh expansion, and VisitPittsburgh is in negotiations with two groups that want to hold meetings here -- all thanks to the G-20 publicity.
But there was a cost. City council approved a $19.5 million budget for the summit, most of which is expected to be reimbursed by the federal and state governments. And VisitPittsburgh estimated that just 20 percent of the people who normally work Downtown were in their offices Thursday and Friday.
Some business owners complained that they lost out because Downtown was "a ghost town."
Both of Mr. Ravenstahl's independent challengers in the Nov. 3 general election criticized the city's handling of access to Downtown, with Kevin Acklin calling it "unfair and unnecessary" and Franco Dok Harris saying "it's going to be a money loser."
People who lost income were also upset yesterday. Construction contractor George Kane said the summit "took two days out of my basket. ... For these guys to come out and say, 'Oh, God, wasn't it wonderful' [is] beyond belief."
While the economic benefits of the summit may be determined down the road, there were more immediate concerns about the conduct of police during the summit.
"What I saw happen [Friday] night was a police riot," said Casey Capitolo, a member of the Merton Center's anti-war committee. "It was a full-scale, military-style occupation."
Many of the 110 people arrested that night were trying to follow a dispersal order, but they were encircled by police near the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus, many activists said.
"It was not a failure to disperse that I was charged with. It was a failure to escape," said Keith DeVries, 23, a Pitt student who was among those arrested.
He went to Schenley Plaza on Friday to film the gathering there for a documentary, and he said no one was challenging the hundreds of officers in and around the plaza. Police eventually pushed everyone from the plaza, and Mr. DeVries and other students were corralled near the cathedral and placed under arrest.
He said an officer fired pepper spray in his face as he was lying on the ground. His video camera, which was on loan from Pittsburgh Filmmakers, was taken from him and its $600 lens was broken off.
Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson said the bureau's plan was to let protesters stay in Oakland's Schenley Plaza until 11:00 p.m. "But at 10:42, conditions had deteriorated, and the decision was made to break the crowd up at that time."
He said police didn't want a repeat of Thursday evening's property damage.
An initial order to disperse just moved the crowd to Forbes Avenue, he said. "We did not see movement by the protesters to disperse until after we started effecting arrests. When that happened, many of them tried to flee. And I think at that time, they were not really dispersing, they were eluding prosecution."
However, Chief Donaldson acknowledged there may be some cases where a few people in the crowd got trapped in a police sweep and did not deserve to be charged.
"I know there are some students who claim that they were caught up in the physical movement of the protesters. We will look at each one individually. If we do find that this is the case, then we will move to dismiss the charges against them," he said.
Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, said police shot him four times with beanbag rounds at close range as he was trying to flee on Fifth Avenue. He showed reporters large, purple blotches on the backs of both legs and his left arm. He received treatment at UPMC Presbyterian.
"This was unjust," he said. "I was peaceful. I had done nothing wrong."
Police Chief Nate Harper said tear gas and as well as "soft" or "less-lethal" ammunition such as rubber bullets or bean bag rounds were legitimate means of addressing the situation officers saw developing in Oakland.
During a news conference at the Merton Center's Garfield headquarters, some activists threatened lawsuits, while others sought political action.
"I'll say it very bluntly: The mayor should be fired. The City Council should hold his feet to the fire," said David Meieran, an organizer with Three Rivers Climate Convergence.
He and others called for authorities to release anyone who remains in custody because of G-20 arrests and to drop any charges against those arrested. He also said police should return all confiscated property, including cameras and video footage, and property taken from a permitted "climate camp" in Schenley Park the Monday before the summit.
The city yesterday released a list of 190 people arrested during three days connected to the G-20 Summit. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato said just six were still in custody. Police said all seized property can be picked up at police headquarters.
The city's Office of Municipal Investigations has gotten five complaints about police work during the summit, said Public Safety Director Michael Huss, noting that one came from a business that was affected by drifting tear gas.
Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the city's Citizen Police Review Board, said her board had received 50 complaints related to police activity during the summit, mostly from the Oakland events. She said the board would be undertaking a comprehensive investigation of how police handled the summit.
She said she was "very disturbed" that police had arrested journalists -- including Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman -- who were there to observe the Friday protest.
"The huge police presence -- it was overwhelming," said Ms. Pittinger.
City officials said their decision to bring in out-of-town officers and state troopers to boost local law enforcement to 3,078 officers was driven by experiences of other cities, like Seattle and London, that were swamped with protesters. Chief Harper said his bureau estimates that Pittsburgh drew just 5,000 out-of-town activists.
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