YinzPitt

Today is the day that most of the 92 people that were arrested during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, will face their day in court.  I for one have no problems with any of this, and most of them were probably doing something to be arrested.  However, as I was reading the news today and glanced at this artcle, which talks about the 92 arrested, one person stuck out in particular.

Kim Siegel, 18, a freshman at Pitt who was arrested Sept. 24 in Oakland, said she wanted to take the deal.

“I was at a friend’s house, which is a 20-minute walk from my dorm,” she said. “I was standing near the (dorm) towers when five officers came up and arrested me. I said I was just going back to my dorm. They said, ‘It’s too late.’

“If I don’t (take the deal), I run the risk of having a criminal charge on my record.”

If this is the truth and she was just standing there, why are they forcing this issue?  Where is the police report for this issue, better yet, why were 5 police officers used to restrain one girl?  Your telling me one guy in full body armor can’t restrain this girl?  It’s not a matter of civility at this point.

I’m a huge fan of keeping the peace, and the riots certainly weren’t peaceful, but if people are outside trying to live their daily life around the student dorms where they live, why do they get hassled?  At one point the fine line between civility and brutality has occurred, and it needs to be addressed.

Now I must note to whoever reads this, I do not support any cause that was protesting during the G20 or anything like that.  I’m just calling for equal rights and things to be looked at fairly, and I know darn well in this day in age it’s not possible.  We need stability, and we need peace to satisfy our daily needs, but what we don’t need are cops who were given the right to go all out and disperse the situation with whatever force necessary.

There were instances of various reports with police taking pictures with arrested people, videos of that bike girl(which is still up in the air for debate on brutality), and I’ve seen it myself when I took pictures in Lawarenceville of people standing on the street.  At the time, I had just went to take the pictures of the police and the scene from afar, however once I got near the area that was blocked, which was a block away from where I worked, I was treated like the enemy.

Another thing that frustrated me about the whole G20 thing, is that during the first day of the summit, a bus full of riot police, and the driver was in full riot gear as well, side swiped a jeep at the 31st Street Pub(which happened to be the owners).  What did that bus do?  Stopped, then one cop got out of the bus, looked at the damage which was pretty significant, and then got back on the bus and drove off.  The owner found out shortly after that and went to the cops standing there.  You know what they said?  “we didn’t see anything, and I don’t know what happened.”

This is what needs changed about the society we live in.  The owner has yet to be contacted by the police or the port authority after numerous calls.  If were going to talk about the people that had their lives disrupted/damaged during the summit then people need to speak up or something needs to be done.

Just remember this number, $35 million came in for profit, but who saw it?  Not the guy that got his Jeep messed up, or the businesses that had their windows smashed.  For a political goverment so hell-bent on making a name for themselves, they sure did, but what about the people that live and work here in Pittsburgh?  We were given nothing and shown nothing, while our lives were turned upside down for this event.

/end rant about the politics of Pittsburgh and how I’m sick of the way people are treated.