G-20 Diary: Hyperbole All Around

Google "Pittsburgh," "G-20" and "riots" and up pop 2,880 results. Maybe the world media were expecting riots. Maybe a lot in the "news" biz actually wanted riots. One particularly clueless legal observer said the police response was "akin to Kent State." Um, yeah, a lot of passersby and local residents got caught up in the police response, but nobody was seriously hurt, let alone killed.

The protesters getting most of the attention from the press and the police crowed that their efforts were a success.

What we've seen today is people's willingness to resist global capitalism despite the combined forces of state repression. The police have rampantly abused their so-called less lethal weapons. What less lethal means is that they are willing to kill to silence those voices, which are already excluded from these summits. We've seen it in Argentina, we've seen it in South Korea and now we're living it ourselves.

Uh-huh. The reference is to the "games of cat and mouse" that protesters played with police who broke up an unpermitted march down city streets. What the G-20 Resistance Project actually succeeded in doing was antagonizing the locals that the former claimed to represent. Among the comments

These low-lifes have no business in our neighborhood.

Why are they protesting? They're all young kids who don't want to go out and work for a living.

One of the out-of-town ACLU volunteers I chatted with was surprised at that sentiment (echoed by comments in my previous post), that regular Pittsburghers were far more likely to support the police than the protesters. It was my turn to be surprised that the young Floridian hadn't heard about the ambush of three local officers by right-wing blogger obsessed that President Obama was going to take his guns away. In Pittsburgh, members of the police are likely to be neighbors, friends and/or relatives.

Another "success" that the more histrionic demonstrators notched up was in grabbing the spotlight away from quieter but more pointed messages from the array of anti-war, environmental and pro-jobs groups. Personally, I have a lot more respect for the people in the bright yellow "Free Tibet" shirts than the masked marauders in black. And the overall award for cojones in peaceful demonstration goes to Greenpeace's rappelling onto a major bridge to hang a banner [video]:

On the opposite end, the stupidest "protester" is likely David Japenga, charged with doing most of the vandalism during the various demonstrations. Among the many storefronts with smashed windows (tied for stupidest target) are the Oakland location of Pamela's Restaurant, which was the local hangout of the late August Wilson when he was writing here, and the Irish Design Center. Both of them are locally owned businesses with excellent reputations and valuable contributors to the community in general, the arts in particular.

All in all, things were a lot less awful than everyone feared, and I agree whole-heartedly with Patrick Young of the anarchist Pittsburgh Organizing Group, who told the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette:

As soon as everyone gets out of jail, I am going to take a long, long, long nap. And probably have a couple beers.

 

 

Comments

[corporatecriminal]

I find it highly problematic that you refer to David Japenga as "stupid" based on what he's being charged with. The police are claiming that he is responsible for 20 broken windows, but they don't explain what evidence they're basing that on and provide no information to support the claim. It seems very unlikely that in a march of several hundred people only one person did all the destruction single-handedly. Taking the police at their word in a situation like this is irresponsible, especially when you add your personal judgment about the action.

[bioluminescence]

The protesters provided a valuable service. They provided millions of photo images around the world saying not everyone in America buys into the G20 rhetoric.

[anticapitalist1983]

i am an anarchist first of all. but i think everyone should watch this talk by elizabeth warren of the COP about the collapse of the middle class, to get where we are coming from. we see both parties as controlled by corporate interests. we want an economy that is democratic, not one in which a company who lays people off = a rise in their stock price. that pits the economy vs. the people.
Warren's talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A

anarchist ideas: www.anarchistfaq.org

Obama may say he is against the protests at the G20 this week publicly, but you can bet he'll be using the protests as a threat to try to get the banks to agree to the limited reforms he wants soon enough. he will say, "look, you deal with me, and agree to these reforms, or you'll have to deal with these angry mobs of people more and more in the future...."

it's just like how MLK used to specter of more riots to get leaders to the table and get civil rights enacted.

support these protesters: http://www.resistg20.org
indy media on the protests: http://indypgh.org/g20/

the bigger, louder, and more often protests like this happen, the better the reforms will be. the more room progressive dems will have to push on obama, and the more room he'll have to push on the banks.

explaining myths about direct action:
http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/twelvemyths.php

[DocQuantum]

The anarchists would have had more success in getting their message out if, instead of marching, they had stayed around an extra day and set up a booth on Liberty Avenue at the Little Italy Street Festival in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood - just a block over from Friendship Park where tthey had their demonstrations. They could have sold black t-shirts, had face-painting (and masks) for the kids, organized tarantella percussion circles, and had food provided (without harassment, finally!) by Seeds of Peace. And, to be nice, doughnuts for the cops.