Police fire tear gas at G20 protesters – Times Online.
Why is the MSM not reporting? Pittsburgh is in the USA afterall.
September 24, 2009
September 24, 2009
Police fire tear gas at G20 protesters – Times Online.
Why is the MSM not reporting? Pittsburgh is in the USA afterall.
September 24, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Lou Dobbs is covering it. Some of their reporters were hit with tear gas.
September 25, 2009 at 12:16 am
This started early and they did not report it until the english papers had.
September 25, 2009 at 3:38 am
Back in 2001 I was invited to cover a protest of the EU Summit in Ghent, Belgium. The purpose of the summit was to discuss the EU response to our war with Afghanistan. Almost the entire city was locked down. Stores were boarded up, streets closed, barbed wire barriers and police in riot gear everywhere. For the most part the protest was peaceful but knowing those responsible for it the city took every precaution just in case.
At the main stage where speaker after speaker railed on about this and that I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying because most spoke Dutch which I didn’t understand completely. Finally, one speaker from England came on stage and I understood exactly what was being said. It was an extremely anti-American tirade accusing the US of using Afghanistan to test out new weapons and other such nonsense. And all this praise for the poor Taliban. As the cheers in the crowd became deafening I felt extremely threatened and got the hell out of there. The only problem was, I had no idea exactly where I was and since most of the stores were closed I was completely lost.
After what seemed like endless blocks of wandering somehow I managed to walk near a location that was guarded heavily. But for some odd reason the police let me pass through without question. I finally made it to a pub that was open and after drinking more than a few delicious beers got directions to the train station and made it home.
That evening I watched the coverage of the protest on television. And much to my surprise they showed the location where I had been given a free pass by the police. It was the building where the EU was holding their meeting. To this day I don’t understand why I wasn’t stopped. At the time I had long hair and was toting two camera bags. I suppose that they considered me a member of the press (which I was) so it was ok that I was there. But I have to tell you, I’ve never seen anything quite like the locked down, semi-police state that occurred that day.
As far as the present G-20 protest, if those folks were throwing rocks and destroying property they deserved to be maced. Nothing wrong with peaceful protests. I’ve participated in a number of them. But causing violence is another matter entirely and should be dealt with appropriately.