PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

4:30pm: Rally begins at federal building. Activists on bikes have been in the streets downtown.

5:30pm : 100+ people from the fed. bldg rally have marched back to the Municipal Court Building and met up with the Alexander Berkman Jail Solidarity camp which has been going strong since last night. Protestors are drumming and chanting in support of the arrestees. come down and support! 660 first ave, municipal courts by the new allegheny county jail.

5:44pm: 150-200 are rallying outside of the municipal court building as many many arrestees from last night are still being held. etta and pete have spoken to the crowd, others are speaking. there is a call out for more people join them on first ave!

5:48pm: reports are coming in that there is a second march coming down east carson street and across the smithfield street bridge. presumably it will meet up at the Municipal court also.

6:15pm: the rally is settling down quietly, while a large group is heading back down grant street. a legal update has come in and arraignments should begin again soon (100 or so are STILL being held). the jail solidarity camp is still going and will appreciate support tonight.

10:45pm: word is that 60 people or so have been released with bail set at $125. many more are still in custody and the solidarity camp is going strong. there is talk that at 11:15 or so people will be able to post bail in a large group so that may be a good time for people to be there with rides and food -- though it seems that even after posting bail it takes a long time for people to be processed, so we expect to be out there well into the early morning hours. stay strong!

M22 1:10am : one female arrestee has suffered a broken nose; police have announced that she (and the arrested female ACLU legal observer) will be the last to be released (presumably because these represent the worst cases of police misconduct). none have been released in the past few hours, the solidarity camp is continuing into the night and trying to stay warm -- we are expecting releases soon.

2:30am : the last arrestees are finally being released now; reports of extreme police brutality in the prison are starting to come out at as well. Some people are being released ROR, but the Merton Center has posted bail on behalf of some. Arresstees' possesions have been confiscated and reportedly taken to a police station on the north side, say reports. Offers of food, rides, and solidarity to the arrestees are still welcome -- the release is still progressing slowly but surely. It appears many court dates have been set for next week.

The day after the war on Iraq began, close to 1,000 protestors came to downtown Pittsburgh to voice their opposition to the war. After a brief rally at the Federal Building, protestors marched throughout downtown and into the South Side. The protests ended in the mass arrests of at least 122 peaceful demonstrators.

Earlier in the day, the Student Strike Rowdy Student Brigade disrupted classes at the University of Pittsburgh and one student was arrested. [1] [1]

After the evening's rally that began at 5:00, a peaceful but disruptive unpermitted march went through the city, ending by police boxing in the remaining protestors and mass arresting them.

Personal Accounts: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Photos of the rally & march: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Reports from the police station: [1] [2], Jail solidarity: [1]
Video: [ 1]

Protests spread across the city today as Pittsburgh reacts to the start of an American war on Iraq.

7:00 AM: Anti-war statements on the Carnegie Mellon campus. A banner was dropped from the roof of Carnegie Mellon University's University Center [ | 1 ], while Wean Hall has also taken a stance against war. | 1 ]

9:00 AM Banner has been taken down.

10:00 AM: Student Strike begins.

12:00 PMPrayer Vigil at Federal Building beginning

3.25 PM Rowdy Student Brigade march completed, one person arrested.

3:45 PM: The Post-Gazette reports that the Federal Building has closed early in anticipation of the protests, and police are already assembled.

5:00 PM: The rally is set to begin at the Federal Building and is the part of the top story on corporate TV news war coverage. Hundreds are gathering at Grant and Liberty on the sidewalk and many police in full riot gear are near the Federal Building.

5:22 PM: The march has begun downtown on Grant Street. Hundreds are blocking the streets -- corporate TV is covering the march live from helicopters.

5:35 PM: The march has passed Liberty Ave. and Sixth street, police are at each intersection and ACLU observers are on the sidewalks. That march is moving quickly and reports say the march has reached Ft. Duquesne Blvd.

5:53: The march is at a halt at Blvd of the Allies and Grant Street, a drum circle is formed.

6:10 PM: The march was blocked under an underpass by police, protesters are turning around.

6:15 PM: The march heads back toward downtown. Numbers are still estimated by police at 400-500..

6:22 PM: The march is turning onto Smithfield, approaching Seventh Avenue.

6:35 PM: The march is headed for the South Side, via the Smithfield Street Bridge. Police have mentioned arrests, but none have been known to have happened yet.

6:50 PM: The march is on the South Side. Police are moving in to make arrests. There was an incident earlier on Smithfield Street in which a car bumped some protestors and others kicked the car and tore up its license plate. The sheriff's department is now on the South SIde, and arrests are being made. Paddy wagons have arrived.

6:56 PM: On Carson Street, protestors are being arrested. Anyone who does not move onto the sidewalks are being arrested, as are organizers.

7:07 PM: On Carson Street, protest is dispersing. There are still a couple hundred people and police are making arrests.

7:15 PM: Heading back across the Smithfield Street Bridge are about 50 protestors. Police had threatened to block off the bridge and make a mass arrest but don't seem to be doing so.

7:30: While about 150 people continue to march downtown, at least four arrests of organizers from POG and the Thomas Merton Center are being made.

7:35 PM: Police in riot gear have boxed in protestors downtown on Seventh Avenue at William Penn Place. Mass arrests taking place, including ACLU volunteers. At least 20 have been arrested.

7:45 PM: Arrests still being made. Protestors are being cuffed to one another. Onlookers are being threatened with arrest. Estimates are at 35 arrested.

7.57 PM: Three Port Authority buses just pulled out, full of arrested demonstrators, and are heading for the Municipal Courthouse (correction: this used to say allegheny courthouse.)

9:05 PM: The IMC has learned that arrestees are being arraigned at the courthouse. Supporters are encouraged to head there to give moral support. Some will be giving food and rides home to those arrestees who need them.

1:00 AM: Supporters will be camped out in the Alexander Berkman Solidarity Camp outside the Municipal Courts Building (at 660 First Ave) until all the arrestees are let out. Juveniles are being set free with their parents tonight, and adults will be arraigned tomorrow, starting in the morning and carrying on all day most likely. All are encouraged to come show their support. Also, anyone who was arrested or witnessed police brutality or the specific targetting of "leaders" should get in contact with the Thomas Merton Center with regard to legal matters.
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Pittsburgh does NOT consent!

Student Strike is TODAY (Thursday, March 20). Students will walk out of classes and participate in a day of workshops and teach-ins at the University of Pittsburgh campus. The student strike workshop schedule includes a picnic lunch at noon on the grass outside of Hillman Library and at 1pm, an impromptu march by the Rowdy Student Brigade.

Also on for Thursday M20: a noon vigil is planned for the Federal Building, Downtown. And at 5pm, the Merton Center and POG have planned a march & optional civil disobedience.

People unable to participate are encouraged to resist via armbands, visual symbols of their opposition to war.

Over 1,000 people came out today to demonstrate against a war in Iraq, in a series of events organized by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group. The picnic for peace was followed by a rally on Flagstaff Hill, where speakers emphasized the need for an escalation of non-violent resistance.

"It is time to step up and say, 'Peace movement, we are not going to engage in a policy of appeasement!'" said Thomas Merton Center Director Tim Vining. "We are not going to appease Tony Blair and George Bush!"

An unpermitted march followed that lasted three hours, across Carnegie Mellon's campus and through Oakland, Shadyside, looping back through Oakland and up towards Squirrel Hill, where the march dispersed.

Update: In Shadyside, a small group of protestors took a brief detour into Banana Republic, The Gap, and Starbucks, making the connection between corporate greed, sweatshops, and war.

At the Exxon station on Forbes Avenue between Craig Street and Morewood Avenue, a display of motor oil cans was overturned and the crowd chanted for several minutes "no blood for oil."

A brief confrontation took place at the fraternity quad on the Carnegie Mellon campus, when pro-war fraternity members shouted at protestors, and protestors shouted back [ | 1 2 ] [ | 1 ]. Police presence was light throughout, although one group of protestors marched cheerily with a banner that read "Police for Peace".

Later during the march, some of the protestors turned over a cardboard dumpster in attempt to block traffic for a little longer than the marchers could on their own. Other demonstrators moved the dumpster back onto the hill and cleaned up the cardboard. [ 1 ] [ 1 ]

Many also participated today in vigils for peace that took place in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods as well as across the world.

The Pittsburgh Organizing Group is planning another anti-war march for March 30th, and the Thomas Merton Center has announced plans to build a second regional convergence for peace to take place in April.

[ Photos | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ] [ Video | 1 2 3 4 5] [ Personal Accounts | 1 2 3 Your Story Here] [ Pittsburgh Organizing Group ]