The University is working with arrested students and the Pittsburgh police have decided to drop charges for students who got "caught up" in the Friday night attack, providing they can show that they were trying to follow the police order to disperse.
A few things:
1. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY...our legal system says we do not have to prove our innocence, the state has to prove our guilt. As for the university - well, I was under the impression that standing up for rights would be condoned by an institution of higher learning. I was wrong.
2. Mayor Ravenstahl and the City Councilmen continue to applaud the police for their success in quelling the "riots"
3. No word yet on how the nonstudent detainees will be dealt with.
4. No one other than the ACLU is questioning whether the police SHOULD have given the dispersal order, given that the crowd (of both protesters and students) was not violating any laws (I've learned, via the ACLU, that a permit is only required if the protest is disturbing the traffic or in the streets - Friday night, they were ONLY in the plaza on the grass and in fact the POLICE were in the streets).
Students have responded with numerous facebook groups. One includes an account by 18-year-old freshman who was arrested for HOLDING OPEN THE DOOR TO HER DORMITORY for students fleeing gas and rubber bullets to get inside (and therefore follow orders).
Also, this audio is of an interview with Pittsburgh's Indy Media and a Pitt student, during which he yelled something derogatory at the police from his own property. The police bust into his apartment and arrest him. He was released without charge.
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