Pittsburgh G20 Protesters vow to be back for "100 targets" today

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | September 25, 2009 at 04:47 am

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Associated Press says Pittsburgh police are bracing for Friday clashes.

After yesterday's clashes with police in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh, a group of anarchists have vowed to come back this morning and hit "100 targets". Yesterday police used tear gas and sound waves to disperse hundreds of unsanctioned protesters.

Police reported 64 arrests on Thursday and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has praised police for their swift responsiveness to potential violence. Some have argued that freedom of speech is being silenced, and that the G20 is over-policed.

The clashes began on Thursday as antiCapitalist marchers thronged their way toward the Civic arena where the G20 leaders, along with President Obama and the First Lady, were attending the global economic summit.

The Associated press has said that police were grabbing protesters who approached the police line on Thursday, in a show of force which G-20 Resistance members called "overdone" and "violent".

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The group behind yesterday’s unauthorized march protesting the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh said it may strike “100 potential targets” before noon today.
The Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project, which gathered about 1,500 demonstrators for an unsanctioned march in the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, said it will send groups out across the city this morning to cause further disruption, according to its Web site.

“The G-20 is in a house of cards: Let’s shake the table,” the group said.

Yesterday’s demonstration came on the first day of the G-20 conference that saw President Barack Obama and the leaders of 18 other industrialized or developing countries, along with the European Union, convened in the western Pennsylvania city. City officials said 66 people were arrested, many of them near the University of Pittsburgh, as officers wearing body armor used tear gas to break up crowds of demonstrators wielding steel trash bins as battering rams.