City deals with protest aftermath

Peduto calls for probe of Monday’s East Liberty clash

Mayor Bill Peduto wants a “full, third-party” investigation into what occurred Monday night between police and protesters in East Liberty, where violent clashes broke out after an hourslong peaceful demonstration.

Thousands who were on hand to protest police brutality and the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police a week earlier sat and marched in the streets. The event, which began in the afternoon at Penn and Centre avenues, lasted through the evening, when organizers asked participants to leave before a curfew was enforced.

Tension began when a small group remained behind and police fired tear gas and what are referred to as less lethal rounds to disperse what police had declared an unlawful assembly.

“For the past 36 hours, I have studied best practices of less lethal crowd dispersion, I have read countless comments on social media and viewed first-hand video, photographs and accounts. The public safety director provided me with the written official transcripts of all Command operations during that day and I have talked with every person in the command rank who was on the ground or in the command center,” Mr. Peduto said in a news release Wednesday. “Without question, there is a difference of opinion about what happened that day and the appropriateness of the actions of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.”

The mayor’s office “wants to

release the transcripts,” but is waiting for the city’s Law Department to determine whether it is permitted under state law, said Timothy McNulty, mayoral spokesman.

Mr. Peduto has directed the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizen Police Review Board to conduct the investigations.

In a letter to the review board, Mr. Peduto said he is “hoping” the body can work with the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Pittsburgh branch and the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania “to perform a review of city actions.”

Mr. Peduto’s statement followed the Citizen Police Review Board’s Tuesday night announcement that it had opened an investigation into police response to all protests in the city since Saturday, but with a particular focus on the events that unfolded in East Liberty.

Beth Pittinger, the board’s executive director, said the watchdog group has been “swamped” with calls after police broke up a group of protesters on Centre Avenue following a peaceful march. Police claim that the group began throwing rocks at officers; those present say police struck first with tear gas and crowd-clearing projectiles.

“About 8 this morning, our intake director told me the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since 5 o’clock last night,” Ms. Pittinger said Wednesday.

“The general theme [of complaints] is that the police story is inaccurate and that the group there was peaceful, they weren’t engaging in anything that was disruptive . ... There’s a lot of anger and there’s a lot of rage about the deployment of force that the police used Monday night.”

Ms. Pittinger said she did not know the exact number of complaints.

The organization’s sevenmember board called for an investigation of all the protests, beginning with Saturday’s violent demonstrations, to “assess whether the behavior that has been witnessed up until whether the police were within policy,” Ms. Pittinger said.

“I think that was true, up until Monday night. Monday night presented a whole different scenario, and we’ve heard a lot from community that was present, the community reacting to what they saw on video and social media posting,” she said. “And we’ve heard the alternative from police that they were being assaulted with rocks and a water bottle and various debris.”

The review board is composed of three mayoral appointments and four City Council appointments.

The march that began in front of the Target at 2:30 p.m. traveled through East Liberty until 7 p.m. when organizers asked the group to go home. The city was still enforcing an 8:30 p.m. curfew on Monday.

Several hundred protesters remained and flooded the intersection and sidewalks. Some walked toward a Dollar Bank on Penn and threw rocks at the windows. Organizers of the march immediately ran toward the group and told them to stop.

As the group continued to march, their path was blocked by a line of officers at Centre and South Negley avenues.

After a brief standoff, the officers informed the group about the unlawful assembly and ordered them several times to disperse. Police eventually used smoke canisters, tear gas bean bags and “sponge rounds,” according to public safety officials on Tuesday when they confirmed that tear gas had been used. The items used are sometimes called less lethal weapons. In all, 20 were arrested, nine officers were injured and released from the hospital, and two protesters were taken for medical care after receiving injuries from the bean bags, according to public safety officials.

In his letter to OMI requesting an investigation, the mayor asked the office to determine many things, including:

“At what time was gas deployed and where?

“Who requested the switch from smoke to gas, and who approved the order? Was it properly reflected in the radio transcripts?

“What was the necessity and proportionality of the use of less lethal operations?

“Were PBP body-worn cameras activated?

“Was the proper chain of command followed before the use of less lethal tactics, in all areas of East Liberty?

“What was done in order to avoid less lethal operations and provide alternatives before it was dispersed?

“What other law enforcement agencies were present in East Liberty? What are their policies regarding less lethal use?

“What was the necessity and proportionality of the deployment of riot gear?

“What is the PBP training on protests and the de-escalation of force during a protest?”

In a late Monday night press conference, Mr. Peduto, Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich, police Chief Scott Schubert and command staff said a small “splinter group” of protesters caused the violence and first threw bricks, rocks and water bottles at police prior to canisters and projectiles being fired on protesters.

The mayor has “long discussed” best practices for mass demonstrations with public safety, “most prominently during the protests over the death of Antwon Rose, and then again during the protests that began Saturday,” Mr. McNulty said.

State and county police also were at the scene with Pittsburgh SWAT, according to the Public Safety Department, which would not provide further comment.