MAIL&GUARDIAN ONLINE (ZA): Protesters smashed shop windows and threw rocks at police on Thursday as police used pepper gas and batons to disperse marches against capitalism at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.
Protesters wore bandannas and goggles and held aloft a large black sign declaring "No hope in capitalism" and another saying "Kick Capitalism While It Is Down."
One sign simply said "I'm mad as hell."
Protests -- usually against some aspect of capitalism -- have often marked summits since trade talks in Seattle in 1999, when demonstrators ransacked the centre of the city, targeting businesses seen as symbols of US corporate power.
"We have seen police use rubber bullets, batons and gas," said Noah Williams, a spokesperson for the anti-capitalist Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project.
Officials said there were 15 arrests -- one for inciting a riot, four for aggravated assault and 10 others for failing to disperse.
Late on Thursday evening, several hundred protesters took to the streets near the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Police discharged gas and pellet-filled "beanbags" and protesters broke windows at a McDonald's, a Rite Aid pharmacy, a Subway sandwich shop and a FedEx store.
By midnight, hundreds of police in riot gear moved down Forbes Avenue. With no obvious protesters in sight, they sprayed pepper gas on passersby and even students looking down from the balconies of their residences above the avenue.
"We were just looking, then there were loud sirens and then it was hard to breath and I was coughing up a lung," said student Dustin DeMeglio (19) who was watching as police moved by his apartment building.
Earlier, a crowd broke windows at Boston Market and KFC fast-food restaurants, a BMW dealership and a Fidelity Bank in the area, about a 1,6km from the fenced-off convention centre where the G20 talks were taking place.
Police in body armour with plastic shields threw pepper gas canisters and fired beanbags to disperse the protesters. >>> Michelle Nichols and Jonathan Barnes | Friday, September 25, 2009
