Listen to the G20 riot cops w/2 police dogs raid a bystanders apt & arrest him.. Very disturbing

[annm4peace]

No video, just sound. Very disturbing, especially if you listen to it in a silent room.

You can hear them talking and in the background the tear gas and concusion grenades being shot.

http://indypgh.org/g20/#

(as someone who was at the RNC protests for 5 days, this gives you and idea of how much in trouble our democracy is)


University of Pittsburgh Student Ethan Cohen Snatched and Arrested During Interview

Members of Rochester Indymedia were interviewing Ethan Cohen (spelling might be off)--a student at the University of Pittsburgh--on Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh during the G20 when police demanded that the three of us go inside and get off the streets.

Mr. Cohen had earlier been shoved by police back into the foyer of his apparent building when he questioned by an officer as to why he couldn't smoke a cigarette on the street in front of his residence.

He was agitated by this treatment and allowed the two IMC reporters to enter the residence.

At some point around midnight on September 24, Mr. Cohen shouted at police from within the front door as he finished his cigarette and ran up the stairs to his room.

Shortly after Mr. Cohen made himself heard, three riot cops--two with dogs--burst into the apartment complex and chased him down.

One Rochester Indymedia person who was at the door was gripped by an officer and flung out of the foyer and onto the sidewalk.

The other reporter stepped back in the narrow hallway with his hands visible.

The first three officers were followed by five more riot cops for backup.

Mr. Cohen was caught by officers in his own home after expressing his disgust at the police brutality from earlier in the night, arrested, and marched outside of the building by police where he was frisked, put into a van, and taken to jail.

The legal number was called regarding Mr. Cohen and contact information left with legal assistants.



** where is corporate media? you can listen to one indy media interview after another that uncovers how our civil liberties are being destroyed.

** Where are all our congress members how have studied Constitutional Laws??????

[HillbillyBob]

1. This shit has gotten out of hand.

What are we going to do or is there anything we can do?

[Arctic Dave]

4. Sure, open up with a full magazine when they come through your door.

It will be the last time they ever do it for a few of them.

[Rebubula]

10. And your last as well...

...not very reasonable advice.

[Arctic Dave]

11. If the alternative is living in a fascist police state, I believe it is very good advice.

Sometimes it takes sacrifice.

[proteus_lives]

15. You first macho man.

You should be first in line if you're so full of internet-courage.

[Arctic Dave]

16. I guess if the situation ever arises for me, I will.

On edit: if the polcice think they can bust into a house to beat the crap out of someone because they don't like them, then I would encourage anyone (including myself) to do all to resist.

[Kievan Rus]

2. I live in Pittsburgh, and the cops here are total assholes

[babydollhead]

3. I've been following this...from my own city!

This is from a blog by
dwyerj1 September 27th, 2009 12:14 pm

The Miami demonstration against "free" trade (in support of its opposite, _Fair_ trade) on November 17-21 in 2003 was attacked by John F. Timony and "Timoney and (Miami Mayor Manny) Diaz suspended the constitution to achieve their version of 'homeland defense,'" said Brenna Bell, a lawyer with a group called Miami Activist Defense. Timony became an instant crowd-control hero among American fascists and was hired to manage other cities during events like the National Democratic and Republican conventions, and the G-20 in Pittsburgh.

Mayor Diaz said that the massive Miami police operation to avoid a repeat of the riots that marred a 1999 World Trade Organization meeting was a model for post-Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. defense against domestic attack.

John Sweeney, former president of the U.S. labor federation AFL-CIO (now Mr. Trumka), which represents around 13 million trade union members, said that the crushing of dissent in Miami enabled him to understand, "that the protesters' basic right to have their voices heard was severely restricted, and that all Americans' civil liberties" are threatened by such police actions as we have recently witnessed.

It is as if our professional killers (Marines, Blackwater mercenaries, and returning soldiers) who were hired to manage Iraq, Afghanistan, torture in black sites, etc. have come back home to staff police forces led by such people as Mr. Timony. Fearful authorities (such as the mayor in the movie "Battle in Seattle") plan strategy long in advance of such gatherings as G-20. The plan is to put experienced-with-killing troops in battle gear on the streets to squirt spray, lob tear-gas bombs, and shoot rubber bullets and sound cannons at ordinary citizens. The experience these men have with killing the enemy easily enables them to map onto their fellow citizens the demeaning, dehumanizing label of "enemy." They think they're being nice for not using live ammunition.

In order to combat this fascist take-over of America, we who object must convince the individual policemen who brutally throw people onto the pavement, etc. that we are in fact fellow citizens--on the same side--and that the enemy is a chimera, a phantom created by Mr. Bush and other fearful authority figures to push unity and coherence onto our society. Being different, being a protester, being politically opposed to whatever issue is an opportunity for us all to exercise our traditional rights as citizen.

[annm4peace]

7. Miami was the somewhat the start

the police were violent, and the story was censored.

I was just beginning to seek alternative media because corporate media was not reporting on this protest.

I knew some people who were going to protest w/other union members. I was shocked to see what was happening. I remember one person died from a head injury from a cop.

I never saw it in the corporate news.

Next was the police attack on the small group of protesters at the port where they load up the weapons in the Bay ARea and they shot them w/rubber bullets and wood plugs.

[Raineyb]

13. Seattle was the start of this.

Ever since then the riot police have been out of control.

[babydollhead]

5. kick

[Nikki Stone1]

6. K & R

The ACLU needs to get on this ASAP

[mrdmk]

8. Remember all of those cop movies from the 60's and 70's with the Violent Left

A right-wing protesters get to show-up with guns and get positive press. Left-wing protesters show-up with a sign and it is considered a weapon, thus get call trouble makers by the press. Welcome to framing a story sport fans. It is open season on the left.

[annm4peace]

9. you can do something,. after contacting your Reps.. call Pittsburgh

click here to see what you can do:
http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/home-mainmenu-289/5879-stand-with-the-g-20-protesters

The most blatant show of military and police force left protesters tear-gassed, subject to piercing sound, shot with rubber bullets, and not allowed to assemble, while the population of Pittsburgh was kept off the streets and rounded up along with people there to deliver messages of opposition to the G-20 ministers.

We put a quick letter together which we will deliver on Thursday. Please circulate this link everywhere so that thousands sign on.

READ Cindy Sheehan's letter from Pittsburgh
Coverage from Rob Kall, National Lawyers Guild

WATCH video and here and here.

SIGN this letter of outrage, to be sent to federal and PA authorities. Deadline 10-1-2009

CONTACT these officials:
Luke Ravenstahl: Mayor of Pittsburgh 412-255-2626
Nathan Harper: Chief of Police, Pittsburgh 412-323-7800
Ed Rendell: Governor of Pennsylvania 717 787-2500

People of conscience must stand together in outrage and not accept this repression from the government on the people. We cannot allow these actions to go quietly into the night and be forgotten.
We are seizing the opportunity to have our voices heard in unison, denouncing the fascist direction of this country. It is with the utmost urgency and for the sake of stopping the police state and reversing this course that WE WILL NOT BE SILENT.

[ShortnFiery]

12. Seems as if American Crusade 2001+ is staying right on track. :(

[Echo In Light]

14. Rec 16

[Earth_First]

17. There is a whole contingent of Du'ers who believe that this guy got what he deserved...

They were out all weekend following the G20 praising the tactics of the military and their security forces in Pittsburgh.

[Ignis]

18. That's odd...

Where is our resident authoritarian chorus to cry, "every person arrested/abused by the police was a bomb/brick-throwing anarchist who deserved it" about the protests in their beloved Pittsburgh?

:shrug:

I, for one, am shocked!

[PA Democrat]

19. LOL.

I heard the scampering of little feet around the time the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild issued statements criticizing the police and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette published a full page article which painted an extremely unflattering picture of police conduct.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09270/1001203-482.stm

[KansDem]

20. Therein lies the rub

Where are all our congress members how have studied Constitutional Laws??????

We don't have public officials versed in the Constitution. Nor are they champions of The Enlightenment. They are not scholars or intellectuals. They are not "thinkers."

Remember the mantra of the Republican of the 1980s? Remember how they would run for office promising "to run government like a business?"

Just look at them now: the Bachmanns, the Inhofes, the Boehners, the Palins, etc.etc.etc.

They know nothing of government based on Greek ideals. They are paid operatives for the oligarchy pretending to be public servants...

[moriah]

21. How is this NOT a violation of the Fourth Amendment?

There are only three times the police can enter your home. With a warrant, with consent, or exigent circumstances.

"KYLLO v. UNITED STATES (2001) "At the very core" of the Fourth Amendment "stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion." With few exceptions, the question whether a warrantless search of a home is reasonable and hence constitutional must be answered no."

If mouthing off to the officer was considered disorderly conduct, they could have gotten a telephonic warrant for "male residing at <blah>, wearing <blah>" before entering his home. There was no evidence that was about to be destroyed, there was no immediate danger to anyone in the residence or outside of it, and they were not in "hot pursuit of a felon". The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that an officer who responded to a call where a person had reported being assaulted at a party, and said there was underage drinking and marijuana at the party, who knocked on the door and saw through the opened door that there were minors in possession of alcohol who started attempting to destroy evidence, had no right to enter the home without a warrant because the nature of the offense (providing alcohol to underaged kids) was so minor.

How can anyone say with a straight face that mouthing off to a cop while obeying an order is more serious than providing alcohol to minors???

(Edit to add: If they had tried to call to get a warrant, I am willing to bet they would have been laughed at. "You want a warrant to arrest a person inside his home because he told you to 'fuck off' from his front door? Don't you have better things to do, like shooting canisters of chemical weapons onto college dorm balconies?"

[babydollhead]

22. kick