G20 cops dressed in camo ’snatch’ protester

By Muriel Kane
Friday, September 25th, 2009 -- 11:10 am
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pittsgburgharrest092409 G20 cops dressed in camo snatch protester

G20 security officials took responsibility Friday afternoon for a video that seemed to depict US troops 'kidnapping' a protester.

The military was not involved in the incident, but G20 security did acknowledge that "law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team" had detained a protester they said was believed to be vandalizing a store.

Video posted at YouTube shows onlookers calling out "what the fuck" and "what the fuck is wrong with you?" as people in camo uniforms haul a protester along by his collar, shove him into the back seat of a car, and rapidly drive off.

Officials with G20 security released the following statement to Raw Story and other media outlets:

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"Military members supporting the G20 Summit work with local law enforcement authorities but do not have the authority to make arrests. The individuals involved in the 9/24/09 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20. It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues.  The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation.

Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business.  Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area."

The video was featured this morning at the Drudge Report under the heading, "SEE U.S. MILITARY SNATCH PROTESTER... ."

At the liberal website Democratic Underground, one commenter asserted, "This is staged" and then claimed, "Those were not the uniforms National Guard/military were wearing yesterday. Neither was that the vehicles they were driving. This was just a bunch of idiots trying to make some point."

According to news reports, "U.S. authorities assembled a security force of nearly 5,000 people to safeguard the event, including 2,500 National Guard troops, 1,200 state troopers, 875 Pittsburgh city police and small groups of officers from other agencies."

Police and National Guard troops headed off an unauthorized march by some 1000 protesters on Thursday and eventually forced the crowd to scatter.

The police reaction to the protests has been marked by what antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan calls "profound overkill."

"I have been to dozens of protests, large and small, since my son was killed in Iraq, but I have never seen anything like today," Sheehan writes. "There were easily two cops/soldiers for every one of us protesters or maybe even 3 to 1."

Sheehan also witnessed the National Guard troops working with the local police and comments, "Seeing the National Guard troops, fresh from Iraq, broke my heart the hardest. I also talked to dozens of them, none had ever heard of posse commitatus, and asked them if my son, their brother, died in Iraq so they could steal the rights of his mother. Most of them wouldn't even look at me."

These videos are from YouTube, posted September 25, 2009.

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Story comments are below...
  • Welcome to america, home of the brave but not the free. The funny thing is that we love it when the Iranian people are out protesting like crazy with no "free speech zones", but if we attempted 1/10th what they did in Iran in protesting we would be over ran by cops and security forces. Gee what a weird nation were living in.
  • texasaggie
    Not even the brave. Why else would these rat wingers insist on being armed everywhere they go if they weren't quaking at every shadow that moves? Why else do these people insist that cops and soldiers stomp on anyone who lifts up their head? No, Buck. We aren't the "land of the brave" anymore. It got sick when Joe McCarthy set up his operation and expired when the Patriot Act was signed.
  • marxy mcliberalson
    TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT!!! There's NO identification as police offers on those fuckers!!! They got busted violating posse commitatus and now they are trying to rationalize it. IF those guys were cops identify them, lets see their names and pictures, I'd like to know their badge numbers and their positions and the departments they work for. AND IF THEY ARE COPS why are they dressed in fatigues with no identification? l smell the fetid stink of Blackwater!!!!
  • yvonne
    "l smell the fetid stink of Blackwater!!!!"

    BINGO!!!
  • Hermanc14
    LOL, you are completely stupid. Who cares WHO it was... the idiot vandalized a store, he needs to be shot or arrested. Personally, I side with shooting him.
  • Pete
    anyone catch this man being read his Miranda rights? This shit is straight out of Honduras. For all those saying that this was an undercover....did you see his body language when they try and get him in the car. That is an American Patriot that would prefer not to be "dissapeared".

    For all those arguing over his being a protester or a vandal. Every heard of innocent until proven guilty?


    SCARY SHIT
  • spiterod
    You need to be read your Miranda rights when you are being arrested, chances are he was read his rights in the car. They don't have to be read to you out in the open before you are cuffed. If he wasn't read them and he isn't charged with anything, his Miranda rights wouldn't have helped him anyway.
  • brenpd
    Wrong. You only need to be read your miranda rights when you are going to be questioned regarding the offense or crime you were arrested for. (Custodial arrest + Inerrogation = Miranda) Those of you who think you know the law and the Constitution, why don't you sit down and actually read the laws instead of relying on TV shows to teach you about the law.
  • Pete
    If not being charged, why thrown in a car and sped away?

    Read Shock Doctrine if you want to see why I made the comparison to Latin America.

    I did not witness this whole even in person. Who knows what was actually happening here. I still think it's frightening because these military style tactics don't belong in the streets of America, G20 or not. Do we know if that kid (asshole vandal, or not) is OK?
  • dootsieleininger
    of course it's blackwater ..now called something else
  • Walter_Cronkite
    Not so sure. Because of the MP armbands and the use of the exact crowd control weapons the military were training in at Northcom, I think this was a trial balloon for the destruction of posse comitatus, and those guys were military.

    Not enough info to know if the arrestee was a provocateur, undercover agent, or protestor. We don't even know if he was actually committing vandalism as the press release says, or if he was an undercover op who'd called in that he needed to use the bathroom.
  • RFinLA
    ...G20 security did acknowledge that “law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team” had detained a protester they said was believed to be vandalizing a store."

    What are the multiple agencies?
  • Walter_Cronkite
    See my comment above as to who they might include. They have basically created paramilitary. W/o easily identifiable unit ID, that these "teams" don't have, posse comitatus is unenforceable. How could a reporter alert the public? Which must be the point.
  • Well Well Well
    Its amazing how some people here will make excuses to "not believe" something they just saw.
  • roy61
    the soldiers in the video had Military Police armbands on them...this is a bunch of BS..just some back tracking because a video got out into the public...
  • Walter_Cronkite
    Thanks for letting us know those armbands are MP. Sounds like proof of violation of posse comitatus. I'm sure they won't wear the bands next time. Even elimination of standard uniforms when engaging in crowd control with the thin excuse that they are acting as part of a "team" is a blatant evasion of posse comitatus.

    This major change in the protection our country has from military takeover needs to be reported in the MSM or as close to it as we can get. Anybody know Bill Moyers?
  • overdoneputaforkinit
    Once police start wearing military uniforms and the public accepts it, and these police in military uniforms are making arrests and breaking down doors looking for drugs, it is a small step to have the actual military doing the same thing. It's the same old put a frog in the warming water scenario.
  • Notorious Kelly
    When cops need to extract one of their agent provocateurs from the field, this may be one way to do it yet maintain the agent's credibility as a protester.
  • yvonne
    I agree, except that it may not necessarily be the cops that are the provocateurs--I think there's also the possibility that these provocateurs work for corporate interests (think Blackwater/Ze).
  • mark34
    Dont fuck with the money.

    U$A
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