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Protestors Post Police Scanner Recordings Online

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Oct 5, 2009 8:14 pm US/Eastern

Protestors Post Police Scanner Recordings Online

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Did police go too far while working to contain protestors on the last night of the G-20 Summit?

Protest groups who have posted tapes on the internet say they are proof the police intended to trap the people who gathered on the University of Pittsburgh's Quad and Schenley Plaza.

"Hammer and anvil" was the code name for security operations in Oakland the final night of the summit.

"We need to attempt encirclement of this crowd. We're just going to do a sweep and check and arrest if necessary," an officer said on one of the recordings.

"The thing has been designated 'hammer and anvil' and it is essentially an almost military-like maneuver that is used to indiscriminately sweep an area of people who have a legitimate right to be there and have a legitimate right to express their Constitutional rights," Albert Petrarca, an activist, said.

Police have said they acted decisively that night in response to what they have called "actionable intelligence" that the rally organizers were bent on a spree of destruction and violence through the Oakland business district.

Further, they say they were clear in their instruction for students and others to vacate the area.

But by surrounding the students, Beth Pittinger, of the Pittsburgh Civilian Police Review Board, says the police made it impossible for the students to clear the area and avoid arrests.

"That people were not permitted to exit the area despite being told to disperse, that there was no regress available to them and as a result they were essentially trapped," she said.

The board will be holding public hearings and conducting an investigation, but police are working with the District Attorney to dismiss charges against any people wrongly arrested.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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