Warrior of Agape: Events of the G-20

Monday, September 28, 2009

Events of the G-20

As the world may have noticed, Pittsburgh recently hosted a G-20 summit. As a Warrior of Agape, I found that a major battleground had been established right beneath my feet! I sought to use this opportunity to fight the good fight, and I did so through the Pray-20 initiative. Maybe we'll get up a Pray-20 website sometime (Sept. 29 update: P-20 site is up!)

After we were done with the Pray-20 on Friday, we heard that the anarchists, or so-called "black block," were to protest against police violence just down at UPitt, so some of us decided to step up in white t-shirts and bring signs of peace and non-violence with us. However, the police took the threat seriously, and sent literally hundreds of policemen, outnumbering the protesters with about 10 to 1. Then the black block said they would project video of police violence instead of confronting them. So in the belief it would all be a peaceful demonstration, I got myself a jacket and a camera.

And it was all peaceful until the police suddenly, with no prior notice, advanced towards the crowd of various activists, black masks, students and curious photographers. No footage of police violence was ever shown.

I don't think the police handled this very wisely. The demonstrators was at no point a threat, and they did no damage to public property. The police, on the other hand, all stood showing off their batons and rifles.