Photos from Friday G-20 permitted People's March (1)

(click photos to enlarge)

A crowd estimated at about 8,000 by g20media.org gathered at 5th and Craft in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh to take their antiwar demands and other messages to the G20 summit - or at least as close as they could get.  Seven feeder marches, from Iraq Vets Against the War, free Tibet activists, Students for Justice in Palestine, a spirituality/peace group, a climate contingent, women's coalition, and a Bailout the People march (which joined about an hour later), supplemented the turnout.

Riot squads arrived en masse shortly before the march was to begin and lined the sidewalks ahead on the route to downtown.

Seeds of Peace served tasty noms with no hassles

5th avenue

the Uptown neighborhood. "The police won't even go here sometimes," said one Pittsburgh resident.

a sizable and boisterous anarchist/anti-capitalist contingent was present the entire way, and stayed on the permitted route.

lots of United Steelworkers

entering downtown

Iraq Vets Against the War

the crowd stopped to rest and rally at the City-County building downtown near 4th and Grant, and so did many of the cops... and horses.

the rally downtown lasted about an hour.  organizers from antiwar and economic justice groups spoke at length about the G20's unaccountability to Pittsburgh struggles. Marching bands led furious dancing along Grant and cops from Pittsburgh and elsewhere (the Miami Dade PD has had hundreds of officers here this wee), national guard, border patrol, and other civilian and military agencies looked on and sealed off routes toward the convention center.

one tense moment occurred when a pittsburgh riot cop shouted "he's got a bucket!" at the top of his lungs, in front of an anarchist bloc.  he was referring to an volunteer carrying around a bucket for donations, though apparently the cop thought it contained something else.  the volunteer moseyed on, oblivious, but the line of police pointed their guns (presumably with chemical weapons and/or rubber bullets) directly at the line of anarchists, who began to scream and shout, holding their banners up for protection.

after several minutes, higher-ranking officers had enough of the situation, and a line of national guard troops was sent between the pittsburgh police and the anarchists.  poor people's campaign marchers also lined up nearby, and the tension was diffused.

the march resumed, winding through downtown and hundreds of riot police who lined every sidewalk.  the sidewalks were roped off with "crime scene - do not cross" tape, which held back throngs of onlookers - though some ducked under the tape to find the march.  other people just trying to get home found themselves walking with the march for blocks with no permitted exit from the police.

snipers on top of the convention center, as seen from three blocks away - the closest the march got.  marchers could see ant-sized people looking out the windows before crossing the Allegheny river and holding a concluding rally on the north side.