March Against Police Brutality on Pitt Campus

Last night, a group of about 45 or so students gathered to march against police brutality as shown on Pitt's campus Friday night.

We were not there about G20 - we were there to send a message that its NOT OKAY for police to react the way they did to unarmed peaceful nonprotesting students. That it is NOT OKAY to require a permit for a gathering on a university campus. That it is NOT OKAY for the state to regulate speech.

I think we were able to get the message out.

Unfortunately, a number of students in the dorms and around campus yelled at us to shut up, go home, G20 is over, etc. We were accused of wanting to incite more police violence.

Nothing of the sort - the purpose of the march was to say, we should be allowed to do this. Its not about anything but free speech and freedom from police intimidation.

It is interesting to me to note that, though once again we gathered without a permit, and this time we actually were protesting, police did not declare us an unlawful assembly. The ACLU says that if you stay on the sidewalk or out of the streets, you do not need a permit. But Friday night, students were in the plaza, not the streets - the police were in the streets.

It just tells me that police realize that they had gone overboard Friday - they do not have the balls to attack unarmed students a third night in a row.