Pittsburgh G20 Summit

The night before. Roads already block with tractor-trailers.

The little black car on the bottom is mine. One of the safest parking spots on the planet!

Foreign press. Funny story: since I stayed in the Pennsylvanian, nobody really knew where to direct me. I must have looked journalistic with my camera because I somehow ended up in the secure-area at the entrance to the Convention Center. I took pictures for about half an hour before the confusion was resolved and I was escorted out.

The Entrance. All of the pictures up to the Falun Gong pics were taken from inside this secured area.

Secret-Service guy taking a nap.

Entrance to the Convention Center where all of the dignitaries would drive by shortly after I was booted.

Secret Service (complete with Matrixesque ear-wire)

The Falun Gong had a great demonstration but just a really unlucky spot. You couldn't get to them most of the day without a press pass unless you worked in the Strip... or had been ejected from downtown and were heading out through the strip).

Although I didn't hear them say a word, the Falun Gong did a great job of getting their message across with a long line of posters with info on them.

The Falun Gong meditating. Of all of the demonstrators I saw, they did the best job of making a point in my opinion. They're a religious group being purged by the Chinese government and often having their organs harvested while they are alive. Messed up. Hit the link for Wikipedia.

The Falun Gong with nobody nearby at that point due to road closures.

Emergency medical outpost.

Smallman Street

A truckfull of pumpkins going about business-as-usual.

The secret of American Military might.

Wholey's, Heinz, and Hummers.

There was a common chant in the protests "Tell me what a Police State looks like... This is what a Police State looks like!"

Cool looking building on the North Side that I'd never seen before.

Convention Center from the North Shore

I'm sorry, but it looks like a face. Now that you've seen it, you will not be able to un-see it ;)

PNC Park as the Pirates game started (you could hear the 3D pirate-attack video). There was almost nobody there.

This is me. Hi! :)

The Regency had heightened security. I'm assuming there were some dignitaries there.

"Go Green for Good Health." I'm not sure why, but I like the look of this picture.

Sanford Brown boarded up for the event but put posters over some of the boards.

Citi Bank had the right idea... painted some city pride on their boards so Pittsburgh looked good instead of like a ghost-town.

I'm sure this shirt will be popular. It was a bit ironic that these guys were in the extremely tame downtown instead of heading to Lawrenceville where the action was.

The next 3 pictures sort of go together (watch the light).

The next several shots are of a protest against the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, (who the protestors referred to as a dictator) because of claims of genocide. Their chants tied the issue into the G20 by specifically asking the G20 countries to stop supporting him & his administration.

This group of protesters seemed to all have an accent. It seemed uncertain to me whether they were immigrants or were just in town to protest (although they did have American flags so I'd assume many were immigrants).

Not sure what city Action News 24 is from. Although it's not clear in the smaller pictures, the reporter is not flicking off the demonstrator, the thumb on his other hand is just lined up precariously ;).

People watching the Ethiopian protesters march. The kid with the blue tape over his mouth was wearing a shirt that said "Innocent". I'm not sure what that was about. He didn't seem like he'd be too interested in explaining it given the tape.

These guys were just joking around. They held this banner for about 2 minutes before they went to get some snacks.

Random art down an alley.

On a related note: mine is the best blog in the universe.

Appeared to be a press outpost at the Alcoa building.

Wholey's Fish Market had a discount for officers.

A busload of police. Many of them moved in school busses and PAT busses.

Allison Morris before she put on her bandana & started protesting (obviously).

Behind the impending road-block. This was clearly the wrong side to be on if I wanted good pictures.

Getting around to the business-side of the road-block. This is the first place where the protest ran into a wall of cops and got tear-gassed (probably about 10 minutes after this picture).

The silver panels are the new LRAD sonic devices. They are remarkably ineffective "sound cannons" which I initially mistook to be microwave cannons. It struck me as just an annoying, directional car-alarm. I have the pleasure of being able to say I was in the first batch of "victims" of this "weapon" in America.

Some of the preparations. They were still scrambling officers up to Liberty Ave. from Penn Ave. where the protest was originally headed (until they re-directed after hearing where the cops were set up).

Headed up Liberty Ave (looking back towards the blockade) to meet up with the march.

The crowd headed down Liberty Ave. towards the cops. When the cops were setting up one of them shouted to another "1,500 inbound". I have no idea if that's an accurate estimate.

Bright green hats were Legal Observers from the National Lawyers Guild. Bright orange hats were Legal Observers from the ACLU.

The hardcore Anarchists.

IMHO: The bailouts weren't capitalistic. Just sayin'.

The people with the banner marching down. They end up getting tear-gassed really hard as soon as they hit the line of cops. I didn't think it would be instant, so I was still back taking pics of the crowd at that point.

I think the guy on the left is trying to send a message that carries well in still-photos. ;)

A lesson in Protest Fashion Sense: Helmets because the previous G20 protesters in London got bopped on the head a lot; goggles to reduce (but certainly not completely prevent) effects of tear-gas; masks for anonymity and to slightly lessen effects of tear-gas - bonus points if you can cover it with Vinegar in time for the acidity to partially neutralize the lachrymatory agent. You're welcome! ;)

There they go!

...and here they come! The tear-gas turned the crowd around FAST. Since the march was blocked off to the city, it tried to redirect down alleyways but the protesters were pretty well surrounded. This is why they ended up in Bloomfield.

The person in pink was protesting for Canada to stop the clubbing of baby seals.

Pseudo-baby-seal on the road (same person).

Re-directing down alleys.

Basically indie-red-cross. I got the sense that none of them had medical training but didn't really need it. They primarily cleaned out the eyes of people who got gassed. As far as I know, fortunately nobody needed their bandages.

At this intersection nobody knew where to go. Hardcore anarchists went up the hill (they're the ones dressed like ninjas) and everyone else went down the hill back toward the city. After a little co-ordination, the anarchists came back to the group.

They're getting bored up there... come back!

They came back with a dumpster on wheels.

They eventually hurled these things down the hill towards lines of Riot Police. From what I saw, nobody was hurt. Rolling dumpsters are surprisingly easy to divert or knock over.

Quite a bit of tear gas - that cloud ended up blowing up the hill and clearing it out pretty well.

I stuck around for a bit too long after this shot and got to experience tear gas for the first time. To me it smelled like onions (and obviously burned) but my sense of smell might have been off from all of the vinegar people had poured on masks around me. Anyone else who got more gas have a different interpretation? Leave it in the comments.

Blocked. This caused the crowd to turn again toward Bloomfield.

Pausing & regrouping before the crowd headed into Bloomfield.

Heading into Bloomfield with appropriately semi-ominous clouds.

In Bloomfield a few minutes before the first vandalism of the summit. Check out this interesting thought from a Bloomfield resident's perspective.

The first vandalism of the summit. I missed getting an awesome shot of the vandals running away by about a second. Door was shattered & two ATMs shattered (the one on the left still worked).

The news apparently claimed that they threw rocks through windows. For what it's worth, these particular vandals had tire-irons up their sleves.

Cops chasing the protesters. Dozens of them drove by the bank but they didn't stop yet.

A lady tried out the machines and the one on the left still worked.

Local woman bringing ice-water to the cops regrouping near her house.

The cop on the left totally wants me. Or she's considering arresting me. Hard to tell what she's thinking - but it definitely involves handcuffs.

Local woman giving thumbs-up to the cops.

Artsy setup-shot for the next run-in.

Cops marching slowly in unison and banging their shields with their nightsticks to set the pace.

These were fun shots to get! :)

Busting out the mildly-annoying LRAD again. You can seriously stand 10 meters away and not need to cover your ears. Annoying? Yes. Effective crowd-dispersal device? Not so much.

I think this picture was taken from inside the LRAD's 30-degree area of effectiveness. Couldn't really tell. It's definitely a waste of money, but I guess you have to try it to find out (and we were the trial).

Officer smiling for the camera. I had no idea until I went back through the pics.

Some friendly hippie saw I was a little worn down and offered me a hippy-grown hummus sandwich out of a basketful of sandwiches on his bike. When I asked him how much he said "Um. Well, you can make a donation if you want" so I gave him 4 bucks and he gave me a second Hippy Sandwich.