Violent Tea Partiers Disrupt G-20: 'This is What a Police State Looks Like'

Oh, they're not tea partiers? They're leftwing anarchists?

Never mind.

In spite of a strong police and army police presence, around 300 protestors managed to congregate just minutes from the summit venue, the David H Lawrence convention centre, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet with the leaders of the other 18 countries plus the European Union.

Police threw canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers as US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived for a meeting with leaders of the world's major economies.

The protest close to the summit largely involved members of a Free Tibet lobby group, as well as individuals demonstrating for more jobs, and one man whose face was daubed in black and red paint and was seen taunting officers.

Police managed to contain the scuffle, however, with the giant "ring of steel" surrounding the summit venue, ensuring no protestors managed to get even close, although chants from the crowd could be heard at the convention centre.

Elsewhere in the city, there were reports of rocks being thrown at buses in the Bloomfield district, where the windows and ATM of one bank were damaged.

Many local businesses prepared for the summit by boarding up their properties, while around half of the shops, restaurants and bars in the downtown area – close to the summit – have closed for the duration.

Police have been drafted in from around the country to cope with the protests, with officers from Tuscon, Arizona – some 2,100 miles from Pittsburgh – seen stationed outside the PNC Bank headquarters, while soldiers, special agents and Federal Bureau of Investigation staff are also visible in and around the city.

In the city's Lawrenceville district, about a mile from the summit venue, police deployed tear gas in order to disperse crowds after warning everyone in the area to "leave the immediate vicinity regardless of your purpose." Protestors responded by throwing bottles at the officer.

Funny, but despite the media portrayals of Tea Parties as raucous and angry, we never saw any scenes like this.

More here.

According to Pittsburgh police, 24 people were arrested during the day and another 42 people were arrested overnight as protesters and students thronged in the city's Oakland section, home to the University of Pittsburgh. Police said six people were treated for injuries and other medical problems, including heat exhaustion and reaction to pepper spray; two people were taken to hospitals, but details weren't available.

Protesters complained about the city's response, saying their rights were trampled and that violence would not have broken out if police had allowed the marchers their say.

Jesse Ericson of the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project, an umbrella organization of protest groups, condemned the city for a "bumbling and violent police action."

The G-20 Resistance Project has encouraged "affinity groups" to protest Friday morning at companies that it says represent greed, exploitation, warfare and other social ills, with potential targets including banks, Starbucks, McDonald's, grocery stores and a Marine Corps recruiting center.

In a stunning development, this report actually put a label on someone.

The National Lawyers Guild, a liberal legal-aid group, said one of its observers, a second-year law student, was among those arrested during the march. Its representatives were stationed among the protesters, wearing fluorescent green hats.

Others are whining about a police state.

Later Thursday, hundreds of protesters, including a handful of anarchists, massed near the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden where the G-20 summit was beginning with a welcome ceremony.

"Tell me what a police state looks like. This is what a police state looks like!" the protesters chanted as several hundred riot police blocked them from getting any closer.

Most Livable City in America Is ... Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh?

Huh? Indeed, it is, according to The Economist. Well, if anything I have good timing since I'll soon be visiting the Western Pennsylvania city so I'll see for myself.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato was calling -- no, crowing -- from his cell phone, in full, gleeful, salesman-for-the-region mode, ticking off the number of recent surveys declaring Pittsburgh the nation's most livable city (four or five); the number of front-page New York Times stories about Pittsburgh in the past three months (two) and the value of such publicity to the Pittsburgh area (priceless).

Given that abundance of good publicity, the news that Pittsburgh once again is the most livable city in the United States -- and 29th worldwide -- in a 2009 survey by British magazine The Economist was "great news, but not a surprise," Mr. Onorato said.

"This is now the fourth or fifth independent survey from outside the region talking up the Pittsburgh metro region. You have the stories in The New York Times, the president picks us to host the G-20 summit, now you have this magazine, plus others over the years. It's amazing."

The Economist Intelligence Unit -- which publishes numerous surveys and studies for paying clients -- has ranked Pittsburgh first in U.S. livability ratings since it started measuring them in 2005, said Jon Copestake, editor of the survey.

Of the 140 cities considered, Vancouver, B.C., took the top spot worldwide, followed by Vienna, Melbourne and Toronto. Cities in Asia and Africa fared the worst, with Harare, Zimbabwe, followed by Algiers and Dhaka, Bangladesh (tied), thanks to "civil instability and poor infrastructure," the report said.

The Economist's ranking is just one of many kudos Pittsburgh has earned recently: In 2007 it was rated as "America's Most Livable City" by Places Rated Almanac, and in January Forbes Magazine cited it as the sixth best city in "Ten Cities For Job Growth In 2009."

Of course, there was that survey by the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project, which found Pittsburgh one of the least popular of places to live -- in the bottom 10 of 30 cities surveyed -- with only 17 percent of those surveyed saying they wanted to live there. And Business Week magazine reported that Pittsburgh is the 14th "Most Unhappy City" in the nation.

Great News! The Left Finally Love the Police

Sadly, it took the murder of three Pittsburgh police officers today, but the left has finally embraced the brave men and women of law enforcement today with an outpouring of affection and respect.

Oh wait, no they haven't. In fact, they haven't uttered a word about respecting the police or showing sympathy for the families of those killed by some nutcase.

Instead, they're blaming this on, um, Glenn Beck.

Funny, but when four police officers were murdered in Oakland a couple of weeks ago, I don't recall anyone blaming it on liberals, Air America or MSNBC.

Funny how that works.

Let's take a sampling from the fever swamps today, shall we?

At Balloon Juice, John Cole offers this subtle analysis, calling it Glenn Beck's America. I suppose when those four cops were murdered in Oakland we should have called it what, Jesse Jackson's America? Barack Obama's America? Ron Dellums' America?

Please, someone enlighten me.

Also piling on Glenn Beck is the very unstable John Amato, who also blames the NRA.

Again, we've had thousands of police officers murdered in the line of duty the past several decades, the overwhelming majority killed in urban areas. So I guess the kneejerk reaction to all of those homicides should be to blame it on failed liberal policies in cities controlled by Democrats, correct? Hey, if you want to play that game, let's assign blame for every murder to the killer's party affiliation and ideology, OK? You folks really want to go down that road?

By all means then, it's game on.

Meanwhile, there's a call for the right to lower the temperature a bit.

Funny, but for eight years of the Bush presidency, I don't recall similar pleas for the left to dial it down.

While I'm not one who ascribes to paranoid fears of an "Obama gun grab" or the notion that we'll wake up tomorrow without a Second Amendment, I can understand the fears of gun owners who've had to continue the vociferous fight to maintain gun rights over the years. Considering there are over 50 million gun owners out there in America today who did not commit a crime with their weapons, I believe reflexive reactions to pin the blame on a talk show host or to even suggest today's tragic events in Pittsburgh can be assigned to a political party are disingenuous at best and rather disgusting.

But if those on the left want to play that game, then by all means every time a police officer is murdered then we can play along.

As always, as someone with many relatives in law enforcement and who has seen friends killed in the line of duty, I express my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those killed in Pittsburgh today. Maybe those on the left who are pointing the finger at Glenn Beck can find the time to also pass along their sympathies.

If they actually have any.

Update: Apparently it's all our fault.

In the comments, a vicious far-left blogger, who apparently is also a racist, says we "own this". He apparently has a very short memory, especially from that time when he suggested shooting another blogger.

Classy guy, that T-Bag.

Thanks to Curt at Flopping Aces for the link. Image of the fallen officers added.

More on the perp here.

Records indicate that Mr. Poplawski was dishonorably discharged from the corps during basic training. Friends said he wanted out so he could rejoin his girlfriend.

When that relationship failed, Mr. Poplawski moved for two years to Florida where he worked as a glazier, helping to asemble and replace windows. He returned here in 2006 or 2007.

Mr. Poplawski collaborated with Mr. Perkovic on an Internet show that featured clips --- sometimes from local news broadcasts, other times video from around the town --- where they discussed politics.

Mr. Poplawski lived with his mother and grandmother in Stanton Heights. Friends said his parents had split years ago and that his father "was totally out of the picture."

Using the left's logic, we can now also blame the Marines, women, his mother and his grandmother, in addition to Glenn Beck. Of course we have no knowledge he's ever watched or listened to Glenn Beck, but why disrupt a good narrative?