Roll call...

[damont]

To all my friends in the Pittsburgh area:

I gather that things are kinda ugly. I know psywildfire is out of town, and it appears that adelheid_p is okay. But are the rest of you okay? And just how bad is it there right now? Are we talking Seattle '99 bad? (For all I know it isn't nearly that bad. I'm just asking for information.)

Comments

[h3salthea.livejournal.com]

..is this in relation to the G20 Summit?

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

h3salthea: Yup. G-20.

dr_zrfq: It's nowhere near as bad as the media would have you think. Really. There were a couple of isolated incidents yesterday, a couple of windows were broken, a few incidents of pepper spray and/or tear gas when the illegal protests wouldn't disperse. (And most of that was due to the overly-enthusiastic 20-somethings who were leading them, who are of the romanticized opinion that "if it's legal and in cooperation with the cops, then it's not a protest, dammit!!")

I was just reading one of the news stories about it this morning in utter disbelief, because, really, they need to start putting "based on a true story" disclaimers on news stories the same way they do on movies. The way it was described, you'd think the entire city is one strong gust of wind away from crumbling. This is ridiculous.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Actually I haven't been paying attention to the media much at all, other than WTOP which didn't mention it during the time I was in the car.

A friend told me that one of *her* friends in Pgh reported "Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets, Bricks through windows in the next part of the city over. Refugees." Said person's in Oakland BTW.

[psywildfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Oakland's where all the students are and they're looking at this and going "HEY! MAYHEM! KEEN!"

-WF

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

So what might be the relevant "next part of the city over" from Oakland that might have gotten an influx of smashed windows? (Or it might not. But I'm curious as to where that might have occurred.)

[psywildfire.livejournal.com]

Uptown maybe?

-WF

[angel-vixen.livejournal.com]

<has the most entertaining mental image of BP sitting on the steps up to one of the downtown buildings, in a rocking chair, firing off a Nerf bazooka at the protesters, shouting "GIT OFF MAH LAWN!">

AngelVixen :-)

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

TOBY: [enters] Excuse me. I was waylaid.
C.J.: By what?
TOBY: 30,000 tourists.
LARRY: You know, the protesters.
TOBY: No, don't call them protesters, I've seen better organized crowds at the DMV.
LEO: Two tons this block of cheese weighed...
TOBY: [still muttering] In my day, we knew how to protest.
C.J.: What day was that?
TOBY: 1968.
JOSH: How the hell old were you when you were protesting?
TOBY: My sisters took me. [staffers chuckle] Anybody have a problem with that?
LEO: No one has a problem with that.
TOBY: The police are always seven steps ahead of them. The cops know exactly where they're going to be and what's going to happen. You know how they know? By logging onto their website. We had the underground. We had rapid response.
C.J.: And by God, you were home by supper on a school night.
TOBY: These people are amateurs. What's my assignment?
LEO: Meeting with the amateurs.

I'm having a Toby day here, Angel. ;-)

[angel-vixen.livejournal.com]

JOSH: Don't take the bait.
TOBY: Josh.
JOSH: Don't take the bait!
TOBY: You'd better believe I'm going to take the bait.

Shall I send your Nerf-ammo to the Toybox or downtown? ;)

AngelVixen :-)

[cellio]

Err, what? There have been some arrests and some vandalism from people who seem to want to get arrested, but it's not widespread. Downtown is a ghost town, but that's not because of protesters per se: it's because they have turned downtown into a fort and it's too much trouble to try to get in. It seems to be a lot of sound and fury over nothing.

I have not personally seen a protester yet, though I live all the way out in Squirrel Hill. :-) (That's a couple miles from Oakland, Bloomfield, and Shadyside, where there have been scuffles.)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I know where Squirrel Hill is, having visited various friends there before. The same friend-of-a-friend who was reporting "Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets, Bricks through windows in the next part of the city over, Refugees" apparently also said something about Squirrel Hill being a ghost town, which actually concerned me more than reports from closer to downtown.

I'm glad to hear that things are basically okay where you are.

[cellio]

I know you know where it is, but I figured I'd fill in for the sake of your other readers. :-)

Refugees? Either I'm not watching the right news sources or someone is exaggerating a wee bit. Mind, the gaggles of media people who were sent to cover this must be pretty darn bored, hence some of the national news I've seen...

Squirrel Hill doesn't seem to be a ghost town; it just seems to be normal. I guess my walk to shul tonight will provide more input there. There were fewer cars on the road than normal during my commute, but a fair bit of the regular traffic goes to or through downtown, so that doesn't surprise me. I stopped at the pharmacy this morning and the number of people there and on the streets seemed normal. There were extra police on the streets this afternoon, but I think they're preventative, not responding to something. Small data set, I know, but that's what I've got.