G20 PROTESTS: Men In Military Fatigues Snatch Protester (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Protesters have taken to the streets of Pittsburgh in opposition to the Group of 20 summit taking place Thursday and Friday.

The protests turned violent Thursday, the AP reported, with demonstrators rolling trash bins towards police, and officers firing tear gas back. Read more here. Several thousand demonstrators protested in a more peaceful march on Friday, the New York Times reports.

Check out this slideshow of protesters and vote on the most intense image.

And are you going to any G-20 protests? Send us your G-20 photos and videos! We will publish the best ones of the HuffPost.

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Men in Military Fatigues Snatch Protester

This video uploaded onto YouTube apparently shows an arrest that was made during the protests at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24, 2009. The video says this arrest was made on a side street near Baum Ave & S Millvale Ave.

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[stevebol]

G20media.org, who put out the video has a good overview of what happened at the summit. These G-20 people play hardball and it was a shock to see someone hauled off by people in military get-up. It'll blow over.

[FTBUTA]

G-20, Pittsburgh - 30,000 protesters - 190 arrests
9/12 in DC 75,000+++++(more like 500,000) - 0 (read ZERO) arrests!!!!!
The 9/12ers are scary people!!!

[stevebol]

I wonder if there will be elections in 2012, 2016 etc.........

[Cinnamonape]

Let's get rid of some of the myths with our own eyes, people.
The Camo...yeah the "Multi-Group Task Force" (whatever that comprised) did have people in camo...just look at the photos in the series taken from the photographers of the Pitt News.

http://www.pittnews.com/node/20069

Camo is all over the place, worn under the body armor, in different styles. [Pics #2, #14]
The Body armor in the picture with the suspect on the ground [#10] is identical to those worn by others on the police. The position and type of name tag shown by a uniformed officer in #4 is similar to the camo guys in #10... who carried the guy off in the car.

Pic #10 shows the "suspect" apprehended, face-down on the ground, one officer in camo (different color) is placing the ties on him (or perhaps removing them). Another officer in camo (the black guy) has his blue back pack. His legs could be hog-tied...but it's unclear. Two body armored cops have their truncheons at ready...but the guy with what may be the tear-gas gun (marked with the orange tip) seen in the video "covering" is not in this frame. Neither is the breast-plated, short-sleeved guy (with either an odd symbol or what may be a linked chain of handcuffs on his breast-plate).

If a "fraud" or "hoax" being pulled here it's not by the protesters...it's by the cops.

[Cinnamonape]

More camo (under body armor)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/g20-protest-photos-vote-o_n_298692.html?slidenumber=10#slide_image

Note the mask...same as the type worn by the gun-man in the video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/g20-protest-photos-vote-o_n_298692.html?slidenumber=9#slide_image

[Nullifidian]

I hope all people who are sympathetic to the left remember the comments made here in 2010 and 2012. I know I will get great pleasure from telling DP shills cold calling for donations to perform an anatomically improbable act.

There is nothing the DP has to offer to the left or even the center-left social democrats. They are merely one wing of the party of corporate control and they are cheered on in this by everyone who's still in thrall to President HopeNChange. Unfortunately for the global corporate elite, the hypnotism, the enchantment, the Kool Aid—to be blunt—is wearing off fast. This is why they called in the paramilitary police force and mercenaries to suppress any flicker of anti-corporate organizing in Pittsburgh. They know that in this present depression, they cannot rule through the carrot any more, so they've switched to the stick. You will be a pliant cog in the system or you will be taken away in an unmarked vehicle to god-knows-where.

So to all you dopes who are *still* complaining that Nader cost you the 2000 election, ask yourselves what you and your party did to deserve the votes of Nader supporters. You have a choice: if you write off leftists and dismiss their concerns, you have no authority to start caviling at the left for refusing to back your precious candidate. If you need the left's support, then start behaving like a center-left party, instead of center-right corporate stooges.

[hannabanana]

What's the mystery? Haven't any of you heard of Blackwater?

[anticapitalist1983]

its not blackwater.
the PPD put out a statement about it saying so:
http://thecollegepolitico.com/the-truth-about-the-military-kidnapping-video-from-the-g-20/

[hannabanana]

Yeah, like that's accurate. What a gullible public Americans have become.

[Cinnamonape]

Actually the PPD didn't specify who the individuals were...simply that they were part of the amorphous Multi-Unit Task Force. In fact, since that task force included National Guard. they could have been National Guard...or private contractors (i.e. Ze-Blackwater).

I'm still befuddled by this video. Note that the "suspect" is fairly well "secured" in the photograph. The black camo'd guy has his blue backpack. So how did the suspect get his blue backpack back? Why haul him through the crowd rather than BACK toward the police lines? Why bring the vehicle that hauled him away THROUGH the crowd?

All of those might (but didn't) provoke a violent crowd reaction. Was that the intent?

Something remains odd here.

[anticapitalist1983]

myths about protesters:

http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/twelvemyths.php

[bernusdellus]

Here's an interesting comment on the same video over on LiveLeak

"No guns. Unmarked car. Woodland cammo (outdated). No headgear. Sleeves improperly rolled. Black t-shirts. No handcuffs or zip strips. One guy has desert boots with green cammo uniform. No identifying patches like unit/division insignia on shoulders. The car has hub caps. The "detainee" is still in possession of his bag, an object hung from his belt and is not being properly restrained AT ALL. The driver is wearing a wristwatch with a metal band. There is no one performing local security.

Fake."

Posted 2 days ago by "jsczerby" (R)

[anticapitalist1983]

here is an interesting comment on you:
paranoid, conspiracy theorist.

i think that all these people who think this is not real just can't deal with the FACT that this happened in America.

it's real. the PPD put out a statement about it saying so:
http://thecollegepolitico.com/the-truth-about-the-military-kidnapping-video-from-the-g-20/

[bernusdellus]

As a rule of thumb, I take ad hominem attacks to be a sign of vested interest.

It has become one of the strongest weapons in the arsenal of those who would take power unto themselves...

Attack, marginalise, muzzle. The old saying 'the unreasonable man always wins' was never more true. These tactics are extremely clear in such matters as the health care debate where the bulk of the effort coming from those against it is character assassination, not reasoned argument.

Also, if we take a 'conspiracy' to be actions undertaken by more than one person, covertly, to advance their interests over the interests of others, then the most ludicrous position imaginable would be to deny that conspiracies are going on all around us.

And, as absolute power corrupts absolutely, the higher the stakes, the bigger the crimes.

As a child of the underworld in London in the war, my father would cheerfully have killed you and hidden the body for less money than you would spend on a nice dinner today. For a few million, billion or even trillion dollars imagine what people like my father would do with no hesitation at all.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the phrase 'conspiracy theorist' was coined and heavily promoted by the CIA in the period after WWII when they started to get interested in psyops.

Over to you.

[Cinnamonape]

Video at the end shows full body armored officer with a gun pointing at the protesters...who have their hands up. Other officers in the video have full or partial body armor. One has the facial shield common to the police in the protests. One has some sort of odd chain device on his armor.

The photograph shows several OTHER fully body armored officers, with truncheons.

It's pretty clear that these are authentic police or law-enforcement contractors- note that one has "Police" pretty clearly demarcated on the breastplate.

Note the clip-on ID's on the camo guys. If you are going to fake something you'd put big numbers on your gear. You'd get surplus helmets.

This was a specialized task group working with the body armored guys (mobility vs. turf-holding). Look at other pictures of some of the other cops. Some are wearing the same, "out-of-date" camo under their body armor...these are in whole phalanxes.

There are puzzles...how'd the guy get his pack back? In the pick he looks hog-tied, did they free his feet? The suspect WAS zip stripped.

[Cinnamonape]

I should have said the "suspect" was "un-zip" stripped. Why would they free his arms, give him back his back-pack to haul him into the car?

Do we have a name for this suspect????? Who was charged with vandalism at that point??? Why do I have a tingly feeling this guy was "released without charge"???

[Rayme]

We get to vote between "seen it before' and 'wow this is wild' Holy Crap they got the Dems caught in the propaganda machine.

[jockodog]

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

[stevebol]

Just blame it on the military and send them somewhere. Get on with it.

[Lee Andrew]

REPOST:

The G-20 Joint Information Center, which can be reached at 412-402-7630, issued this statement to me which explains exactly what is going on in that video:

The individuals involved in the 9/24/2009 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20.

It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation. Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area.

More info and video:

http://rawstory.com/2009/09/video-appears-to-show-us-troops-kidnapping-protester/

[hannabanana]

..."are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team..."

Translation: Blackwater and other thugs.

[blimie]

He was taken by G20 personnel, but who are they, who do they work for and who are they accountable to. Can they take someone and not release information on where they are being held. What charges were brought against this man. And are our own police and military supposed to stand out of the way of these thugs? Obama, give us some answers.

[Lorianne]

Well, I guess H P got their 4,000 + hits off of this 'headline' and that's all they care about.

[stevebol]

Obama has taken care of this. The three guys in military get-up and the kid they arrested will be having a beer summit on Columbus Day at the White House.
Everything will be OK.

[hannabanana]

And afterward they will all pee on each other.