PITTSBURGH (AP) - Several people who were arrested during Group of 20 protests and others who witnessed police response to the demonstrators accused authorities Monday of being heavy-handed during last week's economic summit, but city officials commended law enforcement's conduct.In all, 190 people, including at least two reporters, were arrested during the summit Thursday and Friday.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the police response would be evaluated and urged people who felt wronged to make formal complaints, but he praised law enforcement. He said there were no major injuries and less than $50,000 in property damage was done.
"We were prepared to keep our city safe and we did so," he said Monday.
About 110 of the arrests happened Friday in the city's Oakland section, home to the University of Pittsburgh and the scene of nighttime protests Thursday and Friday.
Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, of Pittsburgh, showed off large bruises on his legs and left arm at a news conference Monday at the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh anti-war group.
He said he was shot with rubber bullets as he was trying to leave the area Friday night. Lanzendorfer said he didn't hear any dispersal orders and was just following others when he was shot.
"This was unjust, unfair," he said.
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter was arrested Friday and charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse. The reporter, Sadie Gurman, declined to discuss the arrest and referred The Associated Press to her comments in a Post-Gazette story in which she said she was arrested on Pitt's campus "while truly trying to get out of the fray."
The other reporter who was arrested works for Twin Cities Indymedia, a Minneapolis-based organization that says it reports from "inside social movements against capitalism, imperialism, and injustice."
Melissa Hill, 30, of Minneapolis, said she was swept up in a mass arrest and held for about six hours. Her camera was returned broken and without the footage she shot, she said. Police said she was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.
"I think being a journalist ... it should be obvious that you are there basically just to cover this. You're not participating in the protests," she said. "You want to be the eyes for the whole entire world to see what's going on."
Hill and several others described the scene as confusing and threatening, partly because the police line was continually shifting. Some said they were bystanders who became trapped by police.
Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson said he didn't understand those claims. Dispersal orders were given about 15 minutes apart and, as police moved people out of one area, the crowd simply gathered in another area, he said.
He said he issued the dispersal order Friday night in Oakland, because he didn't want a repeat of Thursday's protests, which resulted in some property damage.
As of Monday morning, the city had received five complaints, including from a business-owner who had tear gas get inside the establishment.
The Citizen Police Review Board, a city-sanctioned panel, said it had gotten nearly 50 complaints. The board plans to hold public hearings looking into, among other things, how police manage public order and whether the level of disruption Friday night warranted police response, said Elizabeth Pittinger, the review board's executive director.
Despite the complaints, government and business officials expect the G-20 to reap rewards for years to come.
VisitPittsburgh president Joseph McGrath said two groups are interested in booking the David L. Lawrence Convention Center as a result of the G-20. He also estimated the summit brought in $35 million to the region so far.
Bill Flanagan, of the Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership, estimated that the city would have had to spend $100 million in advertising to get the kind of media exposure brought about by the summit.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Loading comments...G20 protestors will get no sympathy from me. The police handled them correctly with minimum force. No deadly force was used. No protestor was shot. The police acted correctly. It was the protestors who acted stupidly.fair ends at kindergarten, don't do the crime if you are not able to do the time, are live with the MINOR pain of rubber bullets, I would have voted to let them feel the "love" of the PR 24 side handled batonYou, Patrick, are the one acting stupidly. The police used deadly force repeatedly. It is referred to as "less than lethal" force, because almost all forms CAN cause death. The bean bag and rubber bullet guns? Remember the girl who was shot in the eye and killed in the Boston Red Sox celebration? The LRAD noise generator? It can cause brain hemorrhaging and aneurysms, and was "guaranteed" never to be used on US citizens.So, Patrick, perhaps you should take some consideration to the facts of the situation, rather than making carte blanche statements. Or did you just retire from the force?
I guess everyone should wish the left would behave as well as the right. When the huge Washington demonstrations were over, the city was left cleaner than it was found, and there was not ONE incident reported. In fact, that gathering got hardly any reporting at all...typical...Replybreaking windows, arson and other forms of vandalism and property damage by anarchists deserve the harshest response legally authorised. IMO the police were too passive.Replylol, something tells me you wouldn't be so kiss ass, if you lived in Oakland, PA. But then, you wouldn't have the capacity to think outside your little world, would you?ReplyMy support goes to the police.You southerners gotta hate something, so if it's nameless faceless raceless protesters, thats probably better than your usual victims...Damn, you people are thin brained.
Less than $50,000 in damages. Looks like the libs are losing their touch. By the way, how big was their carbon footprint. Just joking because when the left screws up the environment Gaia understands so it doesn't count. Just ask Al 'Big Carbon Foot' Gore.Comments by IntenseDebate
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WWWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Sounds like a bunch of three year-olds whining after getting in trouble. I have an idea: If these punks don't break the law, destroy private property, and disobey police instructions then they won't have any problems.
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