Police in the distance, from The Pitt News.
I think that extremist actions often go too far, and I am myself most often in a position of supporting far less than those actions taken by extremists.
That said, the reaction to the mostly young, more urban G-20-related protests this evening in Pittsburgh are somewhat surprising after the ho-hum reaction to this August’s town hall protests.
From The Pitt News:
Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney estimated that more than 100 people were arrested following a G-20-related protest in Oakland.
The most common charges, he said, were disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and failure to disperse.
Delaney said he had no way of knowing how long it would take the police to transport arrested people to the county jail.
“On a Saturday night,” he said, “the jail is probably gonna be full or everyone coming down there.”
Others reported police use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
Failure to disperse? The problem with this charge, of course, is that it is a charge that results from a police decision to shut down the protest.
Could you imagine the town hall protesters in August had the police told them to disperse?
Or, in the reverse, could you imagine the police at Pitt tonight if one of the students there brought a gun to their protest?
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political writer at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found