Protests

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Vol. 105Issue 82

Thursday,December 4, 2014Pittnews.com

Salaries 2

SILENCE THAT SPEAKS

Students and community members had a 4.5-minute long moment of silence in the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard as part of an hour-long protest against police brutality. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor

Pitt students and community members fl ood-ed the streets of Oakland Wednesday night to protest racial injustice and police brutality, joining other protesters around the country.

More than 100 students and community members gathered in Schenley Plaza Wednes-

day at approximately 7 p.m. to peacefully pro-test police brutality.

Police did not interfere with the protest, but they shut down and controlled tra! c for brief periods of time in intersections on Forbes Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Bou-levard. At one point, protesters disbanded but reconvened minutes later at Fifth Meyran avenues. They marched until 8:15 p.m., until they disbanded for the night, chanting, “We’ll

be back.” The protesters marched

against tra! c, forcing it to a halt. “Black lives matter,” they chanted.

“From Ferguson to NYC, f*ck police brutal-ity!”

The protest at Pitt comes after, earlier in the day, a Staten Island grand jury failed to in-dict the NYPD o! cer who choked Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, to death in July. This

d e -cision

c o m e s less than a

week after a Missouri grand jury failed to indict o! cer Darren Wil-son for the shooting and death of Michael Brown.

Harrison Kaminsky & Dale Shoemaker

The Pitt News Staff

Protest 4

July 17: Offi cer Daniel Pantaleo placed unarmed Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in New York City.Aug. 9: Offi cer Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.Nov. 24: Grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., did not indict Wilson in death of Brown.Dec. 3: Grand jury in Staten Island, N.Y., did not indict Pantaleo in death of Garner.

National Breakdown

4 December 4, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Hours after the Eric Garner decision yes-terday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a federal civil rights investigation into his murder.

The protesters swarmed around cars stopped at green lights, aiming for the in-tersection of Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Bou-levard.

The Pitt Police monitored the protest, generally keeping to the sidewalks and con-trolling tra! c.

Deputy Police Chief Holly A. Lamb said the protest was lawful, and they had no plans to shut it down at the time.

“I have no idea how long this is going to go on for,” she said.

The protest was against police brutality and injustice in general, said Curtis Phillips, a participant and student at the Community College of Allegheny County.

“This is a protest for o! cer Darren Wilson after the things that happened in Ferguson and the guys choked out by police in New York,” he said. “It’s against injustice.”

Lauren Finkel, a protester and photojour-nalism major at Point Park University , said the “whole system is incredibly racist” and that the “militarization of police is just completely unacceptable.”

“How high does the body count have to get before something changes?” she said.

Pitt students also participated in the pro-test.

“This protest is kind of like a critical mass of people who aren’t going to take police bru-tality anymore,” Mihir Mulloth, a chemistry and neuroscience major, said.

When the protesters reached the intersec-

tion of Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard, they stopped, and several dozen laid down in the middle of the street. One protester then called for a four-and-a-half minute moment of silence. Those protesters not laying in the intersection circled around those who were, and all were silent.

While many protesters condemned police brutality, others expressed disgruntlement with the U.S. judicial system. One protester, David Humphrey , said the outcry was “not about race,” but instead about the response to the decisions made on incidents like those in Ferguson, Mo.

“This will always be a problem with our society, especially today, so I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon,” Humphrey, an administration of justice major, said. “The numbers are still going to be there. It’s up to us to speak our minds.”

Mulloth cited his moral judgement as the driving force behind his presence at the protest.

“Why am I here? Because I’m a human be-ing. No parent should have to tell their kids, ‘Don’t wear a hood, don’t go out at night, al-ways show your hands to a police o! cer.’ Cops are here to protect us,” Mulloth said. “They serve us. Who are you supposed to trust if you can’t trust the cops?”

PROTESTFROM PAGE 1

More than 100 protestors marched around Oakland. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor

Visit pittnews.com for social media reactions and video of last night!s protest.

@thepittnews

Vol. 105Issue 83

Friday, December 5, 2014Pittnews.com

Left- Students lie on the ground for four and a half minutes at Towers Patio to commemorate the four and a half hours Michael Brown spent on the ground.Right- Sevin Hunnid raises a fi nger to the chant “not one more” during a protest downtown.

Christina Lim | Staff Photographer Theo Schwarz | Visual Editor

Battle of Battle of thethe

Consol Consol CenterCenter

Pitt looks to Pitt looks to City Game City Game

page 7page 7

Protests on Pitt’s campus continued Thurs-day afternoon, as students gathered in Towers lobby to organize a die-in to raise awareness for those who have died in police-related incidents.

At 12:45 p.m., students trailed from Towers lobby to the Fifth Avenue side of Towers patio. They then laid down on the patio in silence for four-and-a-half minutes. Roughly 100 students attended the protest, said Pitt spokesman John Fedele.

Organizers of the protest refused to speak

with The Pitt News. Police monitored the protest but did not

interfere, allowing for a peaceful expression of students’ First Amendment rights, Fedele said.

“It’s the way freedom of expression is sup-posed to work in this country,” he said.

Students chanted, “No justice, no peace, no racist police,” and “We can’t breathe,” as they held signs on the patio.

Before dispersing at approximately 1:12 p.m., protest organizers spoke to the crowd through a megaphone, announcing that an-other protest will occur Friday at 5 p.m. in Schenley Plaza.

Protests fl ared up again Thursday night as roughly 20 students marched down Forbes and Fifth avenues chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” The protest ended in Schenley Plaza following a moment of silence. Police again monitored the protest but did not interfere, following behind the marching students in Pitt police cars.

Earlier in the afternoon, dozens marched Downtown protesting the verdict in the Eric Holmes case in New York City, in which a police o! cer who killed Holmes using a chokehold

Harrison Kaminsky Assistant News Editor

A city in solidarity

Protest 3

3December 5, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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was not indicted. Pittsburgh police blocked tra! c to allow the protest.

Sevin Hunnid, a Pittsburgh native and host of Keepin It 700 radio, came out in support of her family, who had “come through struggles with police brutality and race issues.”

“My aunt was a Black Panther. It’s in my blood to stand up for justice and, no matter what color, gender — I’m supposed to stand up for my generation,” Hunnid said.

Hunnid said today’s protest “made a state-m e n t ” a n d w o u l d h e l p draw a b i g g e r crowd at t o m o r-r o w ’ s protest, w h i c h she plans to attend.

Out- rage con-v i n c e d R o b e r t Browne Gartei to join the demon-stration Thursday afternoon.

“Not only personally, but nationally, against a violence that’s happening against a specifi c group of people,” Gartei, a junior studying Japa-nese, anthropology and Africana studies, said. “It’s unfair. It’s not right. And it’s something that needs to be changed in our society.”

Gartei said he found out about the protest mainly through word of mouth, fl yers and posts on social media, all of which have been the driv-ing factor behind most of the protests, he said.

Gartei said it’s important for Pitt students to look to make a change in their communities.

“Look at your local government, ask them these critical questions,” he said. “Look at your o! cials, the laws that [they] have and will make, and the stances they take. That, to me, will enact the quickest change.”

PROTESTFROM PAGE 1

Check online at Pittnews.

com for more visual and

social media coverage of the protests


“i can’t breathe”Pitt students take a stand against police brutality

Hundreds of Pittsburghers set out to show the city “what democracy looks like,” on Friday night, marching for eight miles in the December rain.

Roughly 400 protesters with signs, posters, megaphones and banners gatheredin Schenley

Plaza, around 5 p.m., according to police. It was a mix of high school and college students, Pitt faculty and community members. Some had their faces covered in Guy Fawkes masks, bandanas and ski masks. Others’ faces were unobstructed and warped only by their emo-tion. Immediately after the fi rst protest rallied and fi nished,, a smaller group of about 200 protesters proceeded down Forbes Avenue onto Parkway East to Downtown, South Side and then back to Oakland at around 9 p.m. Many of the protesters attend school at Pitt, local high schools and surrounding colleges.

The anti-police brutality rally was Pittsburgh’s fi fth in three days, and police did not interfere with any of the protests.

Joan Mukogosi, 16, a Winchester Thurston School student from Squirrel Hill, said she and her high school friends were discussing recent events in Ferguson, Mo., and the Eric Garner case in Staten Island, N.Y., in which the police o! cer who placed Garner in a fatal chokehold was not indicted.

Wanting to “do their part,” Mukogsi said they began organizing Friday’s protest.

Mukogosi is listed as a host with four others on a Facebook event created two Saturdays ago , which gar- nered more than 1,000 RSVPs by the day of the protest. Pittsburgh Students Against Police Brutality is listed as the organization responsible for running the protest.

Mukogosi led the fi rst wave of the protest, which began at 5:54 p.m. and ended at 6:02 p.m. The marcherslooped around Big-elow Boulevard, Fifth Avenue, South Bouquet Street and back to the original meeting spot in Schenley Plaza. Tra! c was not stopped in Oak-land because of Pitt police detours.

“This will not be a violent protest. That is not for us,” Mukogosi said, addressing the crowd. As Mukogosi began to dismiss the protesters, a portion of the group began a die-in, lying

down in the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard. She instructed the crowd to get up, adding through a megaphone, “We’ve got to peacefully disperse. I don’t want confl ict.”

At this point, the crowd split in two; one half left the area, and the other half reformed to return to the streets. Mukogosi did not lead this second wind of protests.

Police trailed the second group. As street signs fell behind them, it became unapparent where their march would end. At 6:13 p.m., the protesters neared the end of Forbes Avenue, shouting to each other to “tighten up” and “prepare to take the freeway.”

Although the mood was initially tense, after fi ve or six protestors secured Parkway East ahead, the rest of the group exuberantly barrelled down the ramp that led to the road, pre-paring to “shut it down.”

Despite the heavy rain, energy was high throughout the night. Each new road or neighbor-hood the group overtook on their four-hour march became a victorious battle ground, and the group stopped several times to dance on their spoils, while singing the chorus from DMX’s “Ru" Ryders Anthem,” “Stop, drop, shut ‘em down, open up shop. Oh, no. That’s how ru" ryders roll.”

Harrison Kaminsky and Danielle Fox

The Pitt News StaffPhotos by Theo Schwarz | Visual Editor

“This is not a moment. This is a movement. You took the city back tonight, but it’s not done”Julia Johnson

Protest 14


Davon Magwood, 28, a comedian from Bloomfi eld and protest organizer, said the protest would move out of the way in case of an emergency, and would not interfere with response services, such as ambulances or fi re crews.

“We don’t want to stop services. That is an excuse they use to keep us down,” Magwood said.

O! cers were also prepared to escort an emergency vehicle through the protest if necessary, according to Pittsburgh Police spokeswoman Sonya Toler.

Pittsburgh city police allowed the pro-test to carry on for the length of time and distance that it did, Toler said, because it is the department’s policy to allow protesters to exercise their First Amendment right of freedom of speech.

Toler said there were no arrests, and no confrontations or incidents were reported. Overall, she said the department did a great

job handling the protest.While proceeding toward Downtown,

the protesters stopped tra! c on the Park-way around 6:40 p.m.

At 7:20 p.m., the protesters reached the Smithfi eld Street Bridge, chanting, “Take the bridge! Take it back!” and moved to-ward Carson Street.

Although on the move, the group took several moments to stop, catch their breath and raise morale. Julia Johnson, one of the protest leaders, delivered a speech about America’s “system of oppression” as the

protesters stood outside the Allegheny County Jail.

“We see you! We see you!,” the group turned and shouted to the barred windows before continuing on their route.

Community members greeted the pro-test largely with claps of approval, confused faces or, occasionally, a fi st raised in soli-darity. At one point,two girls even jumped o" a bus to join the protest as it reached South Side.

More than fi ve police cars rode ahead of the group as they took E. Carson Street, chanting “indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail” and “Whose street? Our street! ”

The group stopped on 12th Street, danced on 16th Street and held a moment of silence at the intersection of S. 18th and E. Carson streets, as bar patrons watched.

Here, Johnson told the crowd to look around them and “Look who is fi ghting for your life,” at 8:09 p.m. before the protest-ers crossed the Birmingham Bridge back to Oakland.

Enjoying their “victory lap”, as Mag-wood put it, protesters reached the Pitt police outpost across the street from the Litchfi eld Towers on Forbes Avenue at 8:50 p.m.

A protest leader called out, “We are at the Pitt police station. Do we have a mes-sage for them?”

The crowd began chanting, “No justice, no peace, no racist police.”

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher directed a statement to the University community regarding the recent demonstrations on Dec. 4, in support of the students, faculty and sta" who are “channeling their anger and outrage in positive ways that can and will make a di" erence.”

“As Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injus-tice anywhere is a threat to justice every-where,’ Gallagher quoted, then continued. “Injustice is a cause for outrage. Certainly, I feel that way.”

Although in support of student dem-onstrations, he asked students to forgo easy anger that brings distrust and fear to the cause.

“Through peaceful demonstrations, open dialogue and discussion and through community service,” Gallagher said, “our students are highlighting this important issue for others and advancing understand-

PROTESTFROM PAGE 4

Protest 16


wrestling,” Wilps said. “I like to clear my head and focus on the task at hand.”

Wilps’ coaches make sure the players have the easiest schedule at the end of the semester , he said, in order to succeed in academics and athletics.

“Coaches understand and know when fi nals week is, so they try to schedule our matches in a way so they aren’t on top of

each other,” he said.Wilps has learned to manage his aca-

demics well enough that he is now re-ceiving the Rande Stottlemyer Endowed Scholarship award for being the best student-athlete on the team. Stottlemyer was both Tyler’s and his father’s coach.

“I’m honored. He was a coach and a role model for me,” Wilps said.

Nick Bonaccorsi, a four-year veteran on the wrestling team, said that, as a student athlete, you have to know when it’s time to be serious and when it’s time to have fun.

“On the weekends, when other people are relaxing or out, we have to study, plain and simple,” he said.

Student-athletes are no exception when it comes to balancing and relieving stress in college. Finals and competing in a sport can carry equal amounts of stress, and Bonaccorsi added that budgeting time is the key to success during the semester’s toughest days.

“You know, the main thing is you got to study between classes and not wait around,” he said.

ATHLETESFROM PAGE 12

ing in productive ways that can start to heal and make a di! erence.”

Protest leaders had planned for the participants to enter the Hillman Library silently, keeping their hands in the air in protest, but a security guard would not al-low entrance at the main door on Bigelow Boulevard.

“This is for your security,” he shouted, as he struggled with a few protestors to shut and lock the doors.

After failing to enter the library, the protesters held hands once more on the Hillman Library steps, singing the words “Organize, organize, organize.”

“You are cold and tired, but you are alive,” Johnson said to the protesters be-fore dismissing them for the night, at ap-proximately 9 p.m.

“This is not a moment. This is a move-ment,” Johnson said. “You took the city back tonight, but it’s not done.”

Magwood said he was proud of the pro-test, and its length said “a lot about our generation.”

“People say we are lazy. They say our generation doesn’t work for anything,” Magwood said. “And, here we are putting in the work for justice.”

PROTESTFROM PAGE 14

TED denied his fi rst proposal because of an issue with the wording and denied the second proposal becaue TED needed a more complete list of speakers.

Hufnagel said he will continue to work on this project after his term ends with another collaborator and incoming Board member Jacky Chen.

Sara KleinSara Klein’s initiatives included increasing

gym hours and increasing campus safety. Safety Week, according to Klein, was a

week-long event facilitated by SGB and the Pitt police, as well as the Oakland Transportation Management Association, PennDOT and the PA DUI Association.

“In the long run, I hope the safety week initiatives will really take o! ,” Klein said, adding

SGBFROM PAGE 5

SGB 19

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