Community Corner

Wall Street Movement Draws Protesters to Occupy Pittsburgh Events

The worldwide series of protests, conceived in New York, comes to Hill District and Downtown streets

The Occupy Wall Street movement first spawned in New York City landed in Pittsburgh today as Occupy Pittsburgh protesters marched from Freedom Corner in the Hill District to Market Square, Downtown. 

The now-worldwide demonstrations protest economic inequality and corruption in the financial services sector, according to organizers. 

Hundreds of local protesters, many bearing American flags and handmade signs, chanted in the streets today, drawing on-lookers and shuttering much of Downtown Pittsburgh.  

Find out what's happening in Robinson-Moonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Protesters wound through Centre Avenue, Crawford Street, Sixth Street, Grant Street and Liberty Avenue. Small additional demonstrations also occurred throughout the day Downtown at the BNY Mellon Tower, U.S. Federal Reserve, U.S. Steel and Liberty Center buildings.

Marchers later moved from Market Square to the Mellon Green park adjacent to the BNY Mellon Tower at Grant Street and Sixth Avenue. In a statement, organizers of Occupy Pittsburgh said Pittsburgh Police notified them at 5:30 p.m. that the bank would not attempt to oust them from the green as long as their gathering is peaceful and they maintain the property.

Find out what's happening in Robinson-Moonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Dozens of cities around the world this weekend are experiencing their own offshoots of the Occupy Wall Street movement, where hundreds have been camped out for more than a month in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.

In Pittsburgh, the protests have remained peaceful but have . 

Local organizers have adopted a strategy of "tactical nonviolence" in their approach to today's events, according to a statement posted on their website.

"Tactical Nonviolence does not, for instance, rule out all forms of personal self-defense, civil disobedience or direct action, and there is no simple formula covering every possible set of circumstances," the statement says.

"However, Tactical Nonviolence does remain a practical and effective way to empower the disempowered by concentrating all our efforts toward addressing the real issues, where violence tends to obscure them, and itself becomes the issue."


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