Pittsburgh City Council today voted for a temporary, G-20-driven ordinance that will allow police to cite people for possessing an array of items if they seem to be trying to thwart crowd control. Michael Huss(Public Safety Director), stated today after the council meeting that:
“The use of devices to chain folks together, we want to prevent as much of that as we possibly can,”
He was also stated as saying, that the use of various construction items such as ropes, chains, PVC pipe, concrete, will be highly looked at and arrested on site in order to prevent the formation called “sleeping dragon.” This formation is popular among various protesters in order to link themselves together to make it hard for the police to disperse them. After the meeting, while discussing his views he said:
“Inside of PVC pipe are their arms, and hands,” said Mr. Huss. Using cutting tools on a pipe that contains peoples’ limbs is “a big drain on our public safety resources” and “there is inherent danger involved.”
Also he was stated as saying:
He said police can tell the difference between a plumber and a protester.
“No one is trying to stop someone who needs to make a pipe repair from taking PVC pipe Downtown,” he said. But if several people with pipes seem to be coming together in a protest hot spot? “We would like to have the police stop them, cite this ordinance, and eliminate the problem before we have to physically remove them.”
Council also made mention that this is a severely limited and temporary ban that runs until Sept. 30. He also said to the people who use this equipment to not worry about getting hassled in the city. If your making these repairs and are appropriately dressed, you will be fine. However, if you have these items in a protester hot spot, be prepared to be questioned.
I’m all for this, just as long as they expect the unexpected and everyone turns out to be ok.
Wed, Sep 16, 2009
Daily