At a peaceful rally last night outside the student union in Oakland, people handed out fliers that listed the phone numbers of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, County Executive Dan Onorato, city police Chief Nate Harper and university Chancellor Mark Nordenberg.
"I think it's important to show elected officials that they can't get away with gross violations of the rights of citizens," said Jessica Benner, the co-chair of the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee.
Speakers urged students and others involved to call the officials today and tell them what happened on the nights of Sept. 24 and 25 in Oakland.
Police used riot control tactics, including OC gas and rubber bullets, against students and protesters on and around the university campus those nights.
The fliers instructed people to ask their officials why there were so many security forces present in Oakland, who was in charge and what orders were given, whether police were firing indiscriminately or purposefully, why the curfew was violently enforced and what illegal activity was occurring in Schenley Plaza.
"We are just starting this process of justice that has to occur after something like this happens," Ms. Benner said.
Some speakers made references to upcoming mayoral and gubernatorial elections, and voter registration cards were available at a table near the speakers' podium.
Paradise Gray, a member of the community group One Hood, criticized Mr. Ravenstahl and Mr. Onorato for welcoming the G-20 summit to Pittsburgh, and urged everyone to sign up to vote.
"We need to elect a mayor that will not turn our city into a police state," he said. He urged voters to work against Mr. Onorato, who plans to announce Tuesday he will run for governor of Pennsylvania.
Though the rally had some political undertones, the event was mostly a chance for students to share their stories from the nights of the Oakland confrontations.
Of the 190 people arrested during the summit, 51 were Pitt students.
In the group of about 200 people who attended last night's event, there were a few instant celebrities.
"I'm the YouTube girl," said Pitt freshman Emily Rowe. A video of Ms. Rowe, bleeding from the head and trapped on stairs leading to a walkway above Forbes Avenue, has more than 70,000 hits on YouTube.
Ms. Rowe said she was in her dorm room on Sept. 24, the first night of the G-20 summit, when a friend came by to see if she wanted to go outside to watch the activity. But they were soon trapped by police on the stairs leading up to the crosswalk, and as they were trying to walk away, Ms. Rowe was hit in the head with a tear gas canister.
As someone taped the incident, her friend told her that her head was bleeding. She received medical attention later that night.
"I have four staples in my head because I decided to go out that night and observe what was going on in my city," she said.
Another freshman, Tracey Hickey, said it was a strange experience watching a YouTube video of her arrest. Ms. Hickey was arrested after police observed her holding a door open for people to enter a residence hall on the Fifth Avenue side of the campus. In the video, she said, two officers pushed her down onto the patio and arrested her.
She was charged with failure to disperse, and said she plans to fight the charges.
"I hope everyone is going to fight the charges," she said.
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