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Francine Porter, a critical care nurse and Pittsburgh resident, says she was concerned with health issues regarding the police's use of OC vapor during the G-20 summit protests. The Citizens Police Review Board held a public hearing in Lawrenceville on Tuesday.

Police review board holds G-20 forum

By: Steve Orbanek

Posted: 10/22/09

While the G-20 Summit is almost a month past, the city is still feeling the ramifications of the event.

The Citizens Police Review Board held a public hearing Tuesday at the Stephen Foster Community Center in Lawrenceville to address the city's police force and its handling of the G-20 demonstrations that occurred Sept. 24 and 25.

During the hearing, citizens had the opportunity to voice their opinions in front of the review board. Marsha Hinton, chair of the board, said the board will use the information generated at the hearing to investigate police action during the demonstrations.

Mel Packer, a Point Breeze resident, spoke in front of the board. According to Packer, the police acted irresponsibly and unjustly during the demonstrations. Packer said the city became a battlefield dominated by police.

"People were seized unjustly and beaten," Packer said. "Every one of our elected officials chose not only to sit on their hands, but to issue public statements applauding [the police's] efforts. If it is a crime to break a window, it is a crime to break a head."

Some of the individuals who spoke said they felt the media did not do a proper job of conveying the truth during the summit.

"The Pittsburgh media does not believe in telling the truth," said Mt. Washington resident Harry Miller. "It's heavy handed. It's politics at its worst, and we don't even have a chance to say what's really going on."

Miller said he plans to send the film of the hearing to C-SPAN in an effort to inform all of America of the events that occurred during G-20 demonstrations.

While most of the attendees at the hearing spoke out in opposition of the police, a few voiced support for the police and their ability to keep the protests from getting out of hand.

Maureen Crowley, a Lawrenceville resident, said she witnessed a masked woman come on to her property on more than one occasion. Crowley said she asked the protestor to leave, but she kept coming back.

"I asked her kindly, 'Take your mask off, or are you ashamed for your mother to see what you're doing today?'" Crowley said.

North Hills resident Dorry D'Amico attended the hearing but chose not to speak. D'Amico owns a transmission business in Lawrenceville and said the police saved her business from potentially being vandalized.

"I feel that we were saved from this. I was never so scared," D'Amico said, adding that masked protesters blocked her from entering her business in Lawrenceville.

D'Amico acknowledged that she was an outsider at the hearing, since most of the attendees were voicing dissent toward the police, but D'Amico remained firm in her convictions.

"Am I in the wrong place? To me, it just seems like a bunch of people who just had nothing to do, so they said, 'Hey, let's trash this city,'" D'Amico said of the protest that began in Arsenal Park on Sept. 24. "If it wasn't for [the police], all of Butler Street would have been trashed. I know that for sure."

But D'Amico's opinions were the minority at the hearing.

Julie Pittman, a student at Providence College in Rhode Island, was arrested during protests in Oakland at 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 25.

Pittman said the police told her to disperse, but she could find no way out of police barricades. She said she spent the night on a police bus until 6:30 a.m. with her hands in plastic handcuffs. According to Pittman, she and the other protesters on the bus were unable to go to the bathroom and the police continually turned up the air conditioning on the bus so the captive protesters could not sleep.

Albert Petrarca was another speaker who said he witnessed the police abuse their power. Petrarca was arrested at Penn Avenue and 34th Street during an unapproved march from Arsenal Park on Sept. 24.

Petrarca also said the board should hold Mayor Luke Ravenstahl accountable if they find truth behind the reports of police abusing their power.

"I saw kids who were five and six years old overcome by tear gas. Until the police decided to unleash the tear gas, the demonstrations were very peaceful," Petrarca said. "I think the responsibility really falls on the shoulder of our mayor."

Following the hearing, Hinton said the board plans to schedule a similar meeting in Oakland and combine information from both hearings for an investigation of the information they received at the meetings.