After an initial rally at the August Wilson Center, about 100 marchers took to the streets to “shut it down.”
And they did, clogging intersections four separate times with “die-ins,” lying down four 4 ½ minutes to symbolize the 4 ½ hours Michael Brown’s body lay in the street in Ferguson, Mo., after he was shot by officer Darren Wilson.
All along the way, they brandished signs, most referring to Garner’s death: “I’m not holding my breath,” “I can’t breathe,” “Racism takes my breath away,” and “Why isn’t breathing a civil right?”
They also chanted: “F**k police brutality, from Ferguson to N.Y.C.”
Throughout the march, Pittsburgh police—most motorcycle and bicycle officers wearing body cameras—maintained their distance, rerouting traffic blocks ahead and behind of the protestors. Zone 2 Cmdr. Eric Holmes said the bureau opted to take a passive approach to the march even though the marchers had no permit.
“We recognize that we’re at the apex of a national discussion (on community policing) and Pittsburgh is part of that discussion,” he said. “And as an African-American male, I’m part of that discussion too, on both sides.”
During the final “die in” in front of the City-County Building on Grant Street, march leader Julia Johnson sprinkled flower petals over the participants lying within chalk outlines.
“Stand together. Stand for each other,” she said. “Help each other.”
While Johnson called for unity to combat the system of racist police violence, Iyanna Bey from Duquesne, took to the microphone with a decidedly different message.
“They are killing us because we allow them to. Stop begging for justice from people who hate you,” she said. “Pull your kids out of White schools. Home school them. We should live like the Amish. We can’t get along with people who’ve been killing us from day one.”
At 5 p.m. the following evening, students from the University of Pittsburgh organized an even larger March that began with a crowd of nearly 300 rallying in Schenley Plaza and didn’t end until about 100 had marched down the Parkway East and crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge over to the South Side, blocking traffic the entire way. They continued up Carson Street to the Birmingham Bridge where they crossed back to Oakland and ended their March where the rally started four hours earlier.
True to her word, Johnson led another, smaller protest for inside Ross Park Mall, Dec. 6. She and about 40 others marched through both levels of the North Hills shopping plaza with their hands raised in “don’t shoot me” fashion, and stage one more “die in.”
As with all the Pittsburgh marches, police escorted the protesters and there were no incidents of violence and no arrests.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
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