Ferlo Wants Point State Park for G20 Protesters to Speak Out

Pennsylvania State Senator Jim Ferlo, a Democrat from Highland Park, says he's seeking a permit from the city of Pittsburgh to use Point State Park as a forum the day before the G20 Summit begins in Pittsburgh. Ferlo wants to use the park from 8 in the morning till 10 at night September 23 as a venue for activists to speak out.
The economic summit of international leaders will be September 24 and 25 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Ferlo says he wants environmental, cultural, labor, religious and other groups to be able to give speeches at the park.

Meantime, a group calling itself the "Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project" is planning marches and demonstrations during the summit. The Resistance Project says there will be marches September 23 and 24 and dozens of simultaneous actions on September 25 "that connect the struggle against the G20 to a broader arena of local and international social resistance."
The group says it wants to disrupt the summit and undermine its "attempts to gain legitimacy," but asks participants to avoid police provocation.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper has estimated that he will need 4,000 police officers for crowd control. The city's police bureau has fewer than 1,000. So, Harper has e-mailed more than 100 police chiefs across the country asking them to send officers.