June 9, 2007 Pittsburgh Organizing Group
12:00 pmpog@mutualaid.org
c/o Thomas Merton Center
5125 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15224

Response to Accusations of POG Involvement in Vandalism

On Wednesday, June 6 Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto held a press conference in response to a string of vandalism around Walnut Street in Shadyside. According to news reports several businesses, mostly large corporations such as Starbucks, Talbot's and the Gap had their windows broken the night before. Anti-G8 slogans were painted on at least one storefront. A witness cited in the press apparently reported seeing two individuals on bicycles leaving the scene shortly after the incident occurred.

At his press conference Councilman Peduto stated that the "Pittsburgh Organizing Committee [sic], based out of the Thomas Merton Center" was responsible for the incidents. At the time of the press conference (and at the time of this writing) no one from the Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) had been contacted by Peduto's office or the Pittsburgh Police Department regarding our involvement in the incidents.

The Pittsburgh Organizing Group did not organize the vandalism and the group had no involvement in any part of the action. POG is an above ground organization that holds public events and is frequently in the public eye. We do not organize property destruction or actions involving physical harm to humans or non-human animals. When we hold actions we report on them on our Web site, either before or after the fact.

For more information on the types of actions POG organizes and our position on actions that we are not involved in, check out our statements "Hey POG, Why the Heck Did You Do THAT!?" and our Statement of Solidarity to the movement.

Councilman Peduto's comments at the June 6 press conference were highly irresponsible for a public official to make, detrimental to local movements for peace and social justice, and a slap in the face to those progressives who have previously considered him an ally. He was the first, and as far as we are aware, only non-police official to attempt to link us to these events. His statements have contributed to a public perception of our guilt, caused division within the local anti-war movement, drained our time and resources away from important campaigns, and damaged our personal relationships with members of the community. In the long term these types of false declarations of guilt serve to create a pretext for state repression and damage the ability of social movements to mount strong defenses when repression occurs. We have often been at the receiving end of unprofessional police violence and harassment. There is a very real possibility that the next time such an incident occurs some people will withhold critical support because of personal views of the vandalism incidents erroneously attributed to us. It's one thing to expect the local police and right wing institutions like the Tribute Review to take advantage of any opportunity to disrupt our movements, it's quite another to watch a self-proclaimed progressive pulling the bandwagon.

To be clear Bill Peduto made a declarative statement that our group was guilty of serious felony offences without contacting us beforehand and without producing any evidence as to why his declaration was more than mere speculation. It may be politically valuable to appear on top of things to key constituents, to be able to say you know who did it, but in cases like these there are real people and real causes being hurt by this type of political grandstanding.

Our attempts to seek private redress and accountability have been met with what could charitably be called the great run around. When we contacted his office (412-255-2133) about the public accusations, Peduto's aide backtracked and completely denied that the Councilman mentioned our group, saying he only mentioned that the incident might be connected to the G8. This denial, however, is refuted by video footage of the press conference. WTAE, one of the stations to report our guilt on the basis of comments by a "public official" they confirmed was Peduto, told a member of POG that the station has footage of Peduto accusing us of the incident. When Peduto's aide was confronted with this fact we were told he was now out of the office and would get back to us next week. When we called back later, an intern in the office said the individual we'd previously talked to was having lunch with Peduto and that he actually was in the office that day. We haven't heard back since. An e-mail from our group to his office was never replied to.

As a self-proclaimed progressive Bill Peduto should understand the grave implications of these irresponsible accusations for POG and for the anti-war movement as a whole. He has a responsibility to his constituents, some of whom are business owners on Walnut Street and some of whom are members of our group, to get his facts straight. No one is helped when businesses are misled as to who bears responsibility for targeting their property and a local group/movement are harmed in the process.

While we would appreciate an apology and retraction from Councilman Peduto the reality is the damage has already been done. We simply hope talking about what has happened will help ensure that he refrains from this type of behavior in the future and in the meantime works to support local movements for peace and social justice with an eye towards undoing some of the damage.

For peace and social justice through solidarity and resistance,
Pittsburgh Organizing Group

See follow-up statement from June 14

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