UPDATED (8:40 p.m.): The Pittsburgh Citizens Police Review Board has opened an inquiry into a Pittsburgh City Police Officer’s interaction with a City Paper reporter following the incident at the Wood Street T Station this afternoon.
CPRB Executive Director Beth Pittinger told CP that “the conduct demonstrated by the officer on that video was so excruciatingly unbecoming on its own merit that there is really nothing to look into.” Pittinger made the decision on her own and CP was informed when she was contacted for comment for this story.
“His demeanor was not a command-and-control demeanor,” Pittinger said. “He was probably driven by his anger.”
“Banging on a light pole like that can be an attention-getting technique used by officers. But it was done here in a way that had no intention of gaining public order. He was angry. He wasn’t professionally engaging people and anybody can ask me to defend that statement.”
Pittinger said she opened an inquiry and sent a note about the matter to Police Chief Cameron McLay “asking him what it was all about. I expect this will be dealt with quickly.”
When asked if the officer’s conduct was inappropriate, Police spokesperson Sonya Toler told CP Editor Charlie Deitch this evening that “if that’s your belief then you need to file a complaint. I’m Not going to judge anything beyond that.”
When asked for a police command opinion on the officer’s conduct Toler said, “If you want a command opinion you need to file a complaint.”
The detention and citation of five individuals at the Wood Street T Station between 3:30 and 4 p.m. this afternoon spilled out onto Liberty Avenue and led to some tense moments between police and onlookers.
According to Port Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie, PAT officers allegedly caught a suspect, a minor, tampering with the escalator at the Wood Street T Station. Ritchie alleges that the juvenile fought back and kicked officers. That juvenile was taken into custody and taken to the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center. Ritchie says an adult male and three other juveniles tried to intervene. The adult was arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail. The three other juveniles were also detained, cited and then released.
A female cousin of the arrested juvenile told City Paper that police “jumped on him, but they did not ask him who pulled the switch.”
“[The officer] was a big man, and you jumped on him for what?” she asks. “We are asking them and saying ‘that is our cousin,’ we need to know what happened. But then they did not want to tell us.”
But the action inside of the station was just the beginning.
Both Pittsburgh Police and Port Authority of
ficers then started to clear people out of the area as multiple police cars arrived on scene. City Paper was present as the vehicles arrived, and officers brought out canines to disperse the crowd. After the section of Wood Street between Liberty Avenue and Sixth Avenue was filled with police vehicles, people started to yell at the police, some claiming the police mistreated the teenage boy and others chanting “Black Lives Matter.”
Two boys standing near the Wood Street and Liberty Avenue crosswalk, were told to move farther away from the scene. One Port Authority officer clad in street clothes with his badge visible around his neck, called out to the two young men asking “do you want trouble?” and told them to back away. They were around 20 to 30 feet from the group of officers and vehicles.
One boy quickly backed away, but another in a yellow sweater stood his ground. At that moment a group of three Port Authority officers dashed at him and tackled him to the ground, and threatened to used tasers. And although one taser was held in the suspect’s back, it was not discharged. The officers handcuffed the teenager and placed him in a squad car.
After this arrest, many officers forcefully whipped out their batons and told the crowd gathering on the sidewalks on the other side of the Liberty Avenue to back away further from the scene. Some hit their batons against metal mailboxes and light posts as they screamed at the public to back away. Many officers yelled that if people did not disperse further — though many were already more than 100 feet from the scene — that “they would sic the dogs on them.”
A Pittsburgh Police officer, as seen in the video above, then approached a crowd of people on the sidewalk, including a CP reporter, with his baton extended yelling, “Make sure you get it all on your tape, big boy, with your telephone.” While the officer in question told the group to back away, at least one citizen walked by him and towards the arrest scene. The officer then moved people down the street before turning to walk away and slammed his baton into a metal light pole.
Pittsburgh Police spokesperson Emily Schaffer said that the Port Authority Police responded to the incident and that Pittsburgh Police only arrived as back up and did not make any arrests.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2015.
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Yeah, the cops are acting like assholes but they didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, they handled the situation extremely well.
I fail to see what the cops did wrong in this video, if that was the intent.
The one cop who charged at the cameraman seemed particularly angry and for some reason hit a lightpost with his baton when walking away (I suppose that’s better than hitting an innocent bystander). Also, it appears the guy in the yellow hoodie on the ground did have a taser put to his chest, not his back, and it sounds like it was used on him and the police even say they are using it. Did I miss something there? Maybe the officer said “you’re gonna get tased” — it’s hard to tell. But I thought I heard the sound of taser noise.
I’m so tired of this “black lives matter” shit. All lives matter.
That is one angry cop. Most cops are those high school bully types that were rather stupid and couldn’t work towards a career involving education in math and science so they went with a career where they have power and a level of authority to abuse and requires no intelligence.
I agree with Jenny. I’m black but I don’t believe in “black lives matter”. I have best friends who are not black and I would be devastated and crushed if they died in someone else’s hands or in general. They really need to stop saying “black lives matter”, it’s irritating and not right.
I disagree that the police were out of order. They were in a threatening situation, where one kid had already kicked an officer and in the chaos one of the other students or onlookers could have made the situation more violent. The police were posturing to disperse the crowd, which had to be done to retake control of the scene.
So the Pittsburgh police handle a situation nicely where no one gets hurt and the people causing the trouble get dispensed/arrested without incident and you guys are bitching? Grow the fuck up. Our police are great, if they weren’t the outstanding people they were to do that job that unruly mob would be 10 times the size and a regular occurrence.
Marie you seem a little confused
The Pittsburgh Police Bureau runs a program called the “Citizens Police Academy” where they teach regular folk how the bureau operates.
During the class by the Canine Unit – which I actually attended twice – officers described the dogs as essentially highly trained and specialized tracking tools, locators: of drugs, explosives, and occasionally fleeing actors. Class members asked each time whether dogs should be or are being used for crowd control, or just to make for an intimidating police presence. Both times we were assured by senior Canine Unit officers that crowd control is not a recommended or legitimate reason to deploy canines.
That’s all I can see or read here that’s truly out of whack, not having been there.
I love to hate on the police. Many of them are jerks that abuse their power. I however didn’t see anything on this video that seemed to be out of line or overly concerning. Why stir the pot with the cops when stirring is not needed? Save it for another time when it counts.
Black lives do matter 100%
All lives matter though too
The fact that black people are basically being hunted on right now calls attention to the situation. So hell yes black lives matter
Syrian lives matter.
My life matter
The police officer at the end of the video did not handle the situation well. However rude comments about police are not warranted either as I know a number of city cops who would never act like this and are actually very smart (in math and science actually) and have earned their masters so they can become an officer in our city and work to make it better. That is like saying everyone named Sally is an awful person… Also, anyone that happens to be downtown daily at this time, like myself, will know that there is a number of very physical fights that threaten the general public by teenagers often. Maybe we should work on our local public education system and educating the kids that this is not tolerated no matter who you are or your skin color.
“Black Lives” Do Matter , It’s not ok That Cops Are getting away with harassing and killing our kind & getting away with it .. All Lives Do Matter but it Just Happen too Be Blacks All the time.. They Don’t Give a Fuck About us .. there is some good cops out there But Over all Most is Ass Holes!! what was all dis for Honestly???
a police officer tackled a boy to the ground! if anyone else does that, they get charged with assault or something. people forget, the United States of America is a country of law, not of men. all power and authority is in the law, so police don’t have the authority to make you do whatever they want you todo. police are only supposed to enforce the law. also, they should respect the innocent people they WORK FOR!!!!
If I was boarding the T and saw some white dude messing with the controls of the escalator, I would think he worked there. If he got tackled by the police, I would be happy they were protecting me.
I would not shout out “WHITE LIVES MATTER” and run to support him. Let’s look past the color of the skin and realize that he was doing something he shouldn’t be doing.
As for the “mob” control, it could have been handled better but that is easy to say hiding behind a screen.
One thing I would say about police officers is that it’s the only profession I can think of where you can belittle, disrespect, or even harm others. If anyone in any other job talked to people the way police did they would be fired. Some police officers really need a lesson in professionalism. I get that sometimes they deal with rough people but the rest of us learn to bite our tongues while on the job and not everyone they encounter is a criminal.
The Officer at the end of the video did not strike the pole out of anger. He was retracting his baton. You would think someone on the citizens review board would know that. Here is a video for you to watch demonstrating two way to retract a baton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giOibK2eD70
Marie please stop the coonery ‘i have white friends yada yada’ you clearly have some identity issues..
Anyway what black person in America doesnt hace atleast one white friend or family member..
police generally cause more violence than they prevent. They only protect corp interest. Things WILL get worse if Pgh(every1) doesn’t take power back from the statists.
i know that officer. He’s a great guy and I would trust him to defend me in any circumstance. I am with my children downtown quite often. Fortunately we have never had to witness anything that chaotic – but I trust that if we were there when that incident happened, I would find comfort in the said officers performance- regardless of language, etc. Let’s look at the real villains here. They are there to protect the people, not to entertain the paparazzi. –
COPS BEING ASSHOLES IS NOT A STORY.
No, it’s because you’re stupid….don’t you have anything better to do?? **ck the cops? REALLY?
So the city police were the ones moving the crowds around and the Port authority police were attacking and and doing the arresting… sounds like the private police force is the one to blame.
All this shows is how aggressive our policing has become. If the kid tried to assult an officer they were within their right to takle him.. at least they did not just shoot him which serms to be the norm. Im not sure why there needs to be so much anger and aggression towards bystandards who are just passing by.. i thought police were supposed to protect us so why all the threats and rage? Is 30 feet away not enough? Seems as tho the police are very fearful of the public eventhough they are aupposed to be protecring rhe public
I’ve witnessed before what this punk did, (push the escalator stop button and then run up past the people that fell down). Then all the other punk high schoolers (read Kindergardeners) laughing. They are the same kids on the PAT buses yelling and screaming until their stop comes up.
The police did their job in what we see in the short time frame of this video.
Those kids have no respect for authority regardless of race. This city had great police. People think they are entitled because of things happening elsewhere. If you live like normal and contribute to society you will never have issues with the police. You won’t be yelling fuck the police when someone breaks in your hope and rapes or kills you or one of your loved ones. I don’t see how this situation could of been handled differently. Please move away politely I think not. I pay for police protection as a tax payer and see no wrong here. Instead of riding them why not commend them. Those young kids constantly go down there to cause trouble and start fights. And the police can’t do shit because to the public it’s excessive. We are living in harsh times and these times call for harsh measures.
Make no mistake…These “kids” are not angels!
This is a HUGE ongoing problem downtown!!!
I have video after video of these “precious little angels” fighting…in the alley.
Some of the fights are so violent and there can be anywhere from 50-75 in the mob…With the majority of them holding their cellphones in the air so they can air it on social media or YouTube after the fact!
Not only is this a public nuisance, but it’s also a public safety issue!
Take for example one of the fight I have recorded where an older woman is trying to negotiate the alley filled with kids…Right as she walks by the two girls go at it and almost pin her to the wall. She could have suffered a head injury. That particular fight was very violent and resulted in one of the girls weave being torn out and all over the ground.
These precious little kids have ZERO RESPECT for authority and I have personally heard them tell an officer to “Get the F*CK outta my face!”
So believe me when I tell you, these kids got everything they deserved yesterday!
You see it all over the media…The hatred for police.
I see it locally when someone gets pulled over for a simple traffic stop or someone is busted for shop-lifting at the CVS…ALL THE CELL PHONES COME OUT!!! Just hoping to catch a glimpse of an officer losing their composure after dealing with a belligerent suspect.
I’m not saying police brutality doesn’t exist or isn’t a problem, but in many instances it is completely blown out of proportion and it only serves to fan the flames of the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement…I would even argue that police are antagonized in hopes of getting some damning video footage.
By the way…ALL LIVES MATTER!
As soon as he rose his voice as bystanders i lost all respect. The first arrest was warranted the kid was strugglin and should have just complied once he was taken to the ground. Those people have every right to stand on the public sidewalk and because it was not an active crime scene there actions are unlawful and should be met with consequences. I would like to add that beating on public property is a crime, Vandalism.
The officer was clearly agitated, and deployed his baton in anger while nowhere near the bystanders or media representative.
I would question the officer’s choice of deploying a less-than-lethal tool such as a baton over verbal commands or empty-hand control – clearly jumping a few rungs in the use of force continuum.
It’s possible that the officer slammed his baton against the metal pole to collapse it, but I believe it was from the stark realization that he had just f***ed up, and was headed for the news cycle.
Honestly, the fact that you people have nothing better to do with your lives than analyze cell phone videos and find a reason to justify people’s just plain out STUPID behavior is pathetic. And for all of you out there who keep post #blacklivesmatter then why don’t you put your phone down and get off your ass and do something. Volunteer at a school, do something, ANYTHING to keep these kids off the streets and out of trouble. This whole situation had absolutely NOTHING to do with race, that man could have been, black, white, yellow, purple, green etc… It’s about keeping the peace and also keeping the public safe. Keeping innocent bystanders from getting hurt, or even worse. So before everyone wants to start running their mouths and blaming the police, step back and realize what the real situation is about. Stop looking for a crutch or an excuse for people’s piss pour attitudes and realize it’s not about race!!
Bill Peduto and Cameron McClay are slowly destroying the City of Pittsburgh. The crime statistics will speak for themselves, WAIT FOR IT. The violent crime statistics will climb and the arrest statistics will drop. The police will be blamed for the increase in crimes rates, but what do you expect to happen when you put them in a no win situation. You get criticized for not acting and scrutinized when you do. WAIT FOR IT……
Alright, I’ve tried really hard to stay out of this kind of stuff. BUT I’M ABOUT TO RANT THE FUCK OUTTA THIS. BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG AND FUCK CITYPAPER.
I’m not one for the abuse of power, but it’s hard not to, just naturally speaking. Many people who are in powerful positions allow it to consume them and they assume that they have become the embodiment of that power. On one side of the best example I’ve ever witnessed, we have the police. A force that is scary as death itself for some people. These are people who have to put up with an equal amount of persecution. Not all cops are bad, but not all cops are good.
When the police get a call about someone tampering with an elevator in a heavily commuted area during peak times, there’s a lot they can assume is happening. It could be a situation that could turn much worse. Terrorism is the big one. There’s someone messing with escalators, how soon until they start blocking exits?
As a matter of fact, it’s surprising, and a little comforting to know that there are people ready to respond to something like that at a drop of a hat (because a lot more planning goes into it than you think, or even make an educated guess).
On the other side of this, we have the people. You know, the one’s who are supposed to be protected, and not live with the persistent threat of cops, and their completely explainable, but not warranted, reason to overreact. I went to school downtown, much like some of the ones involved with this scenario. I know what it’s like to get out of school and have all this pent up energy because it’s an oddly beautiful day. There’s always something optimistic about getting out of school on a nice day.
So I can see where the kid doesn’t know any better, he’s probably just messing around. Trying to get a good laugh or something. Then he’s surrounded by cops, and just like police, this kid is trained to assume the worst. Like he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. So he tries to get out of there as fast as he can. Of course he’s going to struggle, because nobody wants to get in trouble.
And then you add others trying to defend the kid. Literally TAUNTING THE COPS TO DO SOMETHING. That’s like poking a bear with a stick. Of course they’re going to react, they are human too, right?
So this is where the divide starts to merge, and creates this grey area. You have people who are worried about their protection against their self-proclaimed protectors. The one’s who don’t know if a kid is about to have is life ended because he wanted to play a prank. You also have people who have a desire or a self-prescribed need to protect their families, friends and everyone else.
So the way I see it, everyone’s at fault. People shouldn’t try to incite riots while others are trying to do their job. And people shouldn’t overreact when presented with a tough situation.
BUT TO FURTHER MY POINT. Articles such as this are not helping. I don’t see it as news as much as it is finger pointing. Good for you CP, for being the forefront of America’s problem
Given the current climate it’s decidedly unhelpful to spend time videoing cops trying to do their jobs. Wouldn’t you be angry if you were trying to perform your work while someone with a negative agenda was filming you? Using the phrase “because I’m black” hardly does anything to calm anybody down. Unless you know the officer well enough to know he isn’t married to a black person of either gender all you are doing is highlighting your own personal bias.
Yes he struck an inanimate object with a baton. Wouldn’t you be angry if someone who didn’t know you effectively called you a racist in the street while you tried to work? I know and understand myself well enough to know I’d probably have done something similar through frustration.
Because I’m black, gay, fat, whatever is your projection and not always the reality. It’s a hateful thing to allege at anyone without good cause and doing his job in moving people out of the road and away from a confrontation is not evidence of racism.
Was it handled well? I don’t think it was particularly but did he protect others from being embroiled in it? Yes.
Despite the recent issues not everyone in a uniform is a racist. Not everyone hates Muslims either.
Cops have a tough job to do protecting the many law abiding citizens from those who are not. Remember that the next time you want to inflame a situation because you believe it’s your right to film everything and inject a bias into your work. A journalist should have some standards including objectivity at the top of the list.
By the way, to those hard of thinking the taser was not used. How do I know this? Simple, the officers would also feel the current as they were restraining the suspect.
To be honest, I don’t understand why this situation needed to be escalated in this way in the first place. If a young person is caught doing something he’s not supposed to do like messing with an escalator, he should be told off, asked to leave. No one was in danger or threatened by this. I don’t see how it’s worth it to make this a situation where people get arrested or assaulted. I misbehaved when I was young, and I grew out of it without having to be criminalized. Am I missing something?
I used to work downtown in an office on Liberty Avenue. 3-4 PM or so is absolutely the worst time to be in that area. While the majority of the kids are fine, there is a huge problem with illegal behavior by some kids. I’ve seen guns pulled, the aforementioned fights, and tons of vandalism. I’ve seen women get grabbed. I’ve seen it all. Did all of the cops act properly? No. But…if these darling angel children wouldn’t be such assholes maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
Gotta love these posts. All these anti-police comments, same people who call the police because someone stole their drugs. Wake the hell up, if your not a delinquent and aren’t breaking the law, then what do you have to worry about? Oh wait, none of you are outstanding citizens. Please continue your criminal ways so there are more videos of police hauling your sorry asses off to jail.
Video once again demonstrates that some people, just do not have the proper demeanor to be police officers. Was his conduct criminal? Probably not. But, the video is clear, that officer should not be on the streets in a law enforcement capacity.
The police are there to protect the innocent people who are, can you say “WORKING” in Downtown against those “lovely children” who are there to cause chaos and rob and beat people because they have absolutely nothing better to do. The police take an oath to protect the innocent and I’m all for doing whatever it takes for them to do their job!! I support the police 200%. If you’re told to move, then move! I can go on and on, but I think you get my point.
Are the kids “angels”? By all accounts here, no. But that’s not the point. The point is that one officer lost the boundary between the perpetrators and the civilians and started treating the bystanders like perpetrators. And concerning “…if your not a delinquent and aren’t breaking the law, then what do you have to worry about?” this answers your question. They weren’t breaking the law but were treated as if they were. And as long as bystanders weren’t interfering with the police action or in harm’s why would they need to move – just because they were told to? But this is an issue with one officer – not officers as a group. Most, as you can see, handled things well and kept the peace.
What kind of stupid video is this?
This shows a group of idiots refusing police orders to leave instead of gathering around an arrest being made. This shows smart mouthed black lives matter racists bringing race into the issue for no reason. It shows them taunting the police for no reason.
I’m sure if those black morons wouldn’t have moved and were arrested that the City Paper would’ve edited this video straight to the arrest, removing the entire taunting and racial element and refusal to move by the black idiots.
Absolutely ridiculous to waste money investigating this. The police are doing nothing more than trying to gain order by dispersing a crowd before a riot breaks out. Being a reporter does not give you the right to ignore the police. And for the article to state that the officer was acting in anger…excuse me, try breaking up a brawl and have argumentative assholes in your face screaming, yelling, calling you names, cursing at you…and YOU maintain your emotions. Anyone who thinks an officer does not react when their adrenaline is pumping is just an idiot!