When I got home from work yesterday, there was "breaking news" that a member of Occupy Pittsburgh had driven his SUV through the front of PNC Bank First Side. (The group is under order to evacuate a nearby downtown park.) Well, they had all the bells and whistles going on the news; live reports about this "dangerous" man and then stories about the Occupy folks. They kept telling me that their "reporters" were going to "stay on this breaking story".
Get home from work today and turn on the same station. Live again but they don't seem as excited. New news about the crash at the PNC Bank First Side building. The Post-Gazette says it best:
"A man's coughing fit caused him to lose control of his girlfriend's SUV and crash into the glass doors of PNC's Firstside Center Downtown on Tuesday, causing a commotion that drew a bomb squad and hordes of curious onlookers during rush hour.
Police this afternoon said Richard McGee, 67, of the North Side, who had been questioned about the incident, would be released and faces only four traffic citations."
While watching the news, one of police spokespersons was on and he said "We didn't know if Occupy Pittsburgh or any other terrorist organization was involved". I stopped in my tracks when I heard that and just stared at the tv. Did I just hear that my city believes that a group of citizens exercising their right of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is a "terrorist" organization?? How many terrorist organizations camp out in the public parks playing guitars??
Now to be fair, Mr. McGee walked away from the crash (because he borrowed his girlfriends car without her knowledge). The police really didn't have any idea what was going on--a car crashed into a bank on the day the Pittsburgh camp was to close--so they went with "It's the Occupy people". It makes you wonder why the police would tell the media it was Occupy simply because it was a bank. You would hope they wouldn't comment (and make stuff up) just because they have a "hunch".
But what really bothered me was the fact they used "or any other terrorist organization". It never dawned on me that my own government considers citizens exercising their rights to be a "terrorist".
The Occupy folks left the park today--no problems at all. They even showed them sweeping the park before they left. There were no incidents the entire time they were there. It seems they didn't report that little fact.