"It's been our experience that unless we get firm commitments by cities that are hosting these events, they will simply delay, stall and confuse organizations as long as they can," said East Liberty resident Casey Capitolo of the Three Rivers Climate Convergence group, one of more than 30 local and national organizations represented at a strategy session Tuesday night at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.
"We're not just doing this for people who want to protest, but for store owners Downtown, bystanders in the Cultural District and everyone else who deserves to know now where they can go and what the city will allow them to do during the G-20," Capitolo said.
A trio of attorneys, including Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, informed the city Monday that delays by City Hall and the Secret Service in setting security perimeters around the David L. Lawrence Convention Center amounted to a tacit denial of marches and speeches planned Sept. 24-25.
The city conditionally has approved all protest permits, subject to security perimeters set by the Secret Service, city officials have said.
"I'm not going to argue with them in the newspapers, but a lot of the permits that were conditionally approved by the mayor, the end points were at the Convention Center. But we know that there's going to be a hard perimeter around the Convention Center by the Secret Service," said city spokeswoman Joanna Doven.
"The mayor has made it very clear that he encourages the expression of all First Amendment rights and that he will continue to work with protest groups to hear their concerns."
Protest organizers plan to attend a City Council hearing at 1:30 p.m. today to express their fears that city and federal agencies have proposed legislation designed to quash dissent during the summit.
To protest a proposed law banning the wearing of masks, Squirrel Hill activist David Meieran said he would don a black one when speaking to council.
"Our core message should be that Pittsburgh welcomes dissent, and dissent is not a crime," he said.
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