by Alexis Lai
The march had been peaceful. One thousand protesters had come together on the afternoon of June 1, looping for three hours around East Liberty, ending under Target’s circular red logo. When Pittsburgh’s wave of Black Lives Matter protests had kicked off two days earlier in Downtown, it had devolved into torched police cars and tear gas. Subsequent protests, including this one, were poised to make the first day the violent exception.
Fewer than 45 minutes later, at the Centre and Negley intersection, a line of police in riot gear faced off with about 100 protesters who had splintered off from Target. Over the course of two hours, police, SWAT officers and state troopers cleared the streets of East Liberty. Their use of force sparked an investigation two days later by Mayor Bill Peduto, who wrote, “[W]ithout question, there is a difference of opinion about what happened that day and the appropriateness of the actions of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.”
One thing is certain: there are more complex questions than clear-cut answers arising from the protest.
Some of the many questions surrounding the police response to the June 1 protest may be debated in federal court. On June 29, a coalition of attorneys led by Timothy P. O’Brien filed a lawsuit against the city, Peduto and five public safety officials, alleging the bureau “escalated a peaceful protest into a scene of pandemonium, panic, violence and bloodshed.”
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, describes the accounts of six protesters, who say they were “gassed,” chased, arrested while trying to respect police orders to disperse, and in one case, “shot in the back.” It states that officials then sought to falsely justify the response by alleging that protesters first hurled bricks at police.
These allegations connect to a constellation of issues surrounding police use of force that have come to the fore in scores of cities across America rising in sustained protest against the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Police in riot gear move into formation near the intersection of Centre and South Negley avenues as protesters advance toward them on Centre Avenue on June 1. (Photo by Alexis Lai/PublicSource)