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Posted on 05/31/2020 5:17:26 PM PDT by lightman
In describing the events that led to violence and a standoff between police in riot gear and protesters on Saturday, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse and Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said they believe the cause was an influx of people who were not residents of the city.
The protest, which began at noon and continued into the evening, was held in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis.
Papenfuse said the protest was peaceful during the first few hours of the event. However, after many of the original protesters left, a new group showed up that he said was the “spark” of violence.
During a virtual press conference, Papenfuse said that as the group turned toward the intersection of State and Front streets, protesters directed their attention toward officers that were acting as traffic control. Five officers were outside the vehicle, not in riot gear, and another was inside.
This is when Papenfuse said a white woman used a pole to smash the police vehicle’s window, then punched an officer in the face.
Police have not yet identified the woman and said she could not be taken into custody at the moment due to the crowd descending on the vehicle. Papenfuse also called this group “rioters,” saying their actions included throwing bricks and causing property damage.
When the officers called for help, Papenfuse said Capitol police officers arrived and used pepper spray to get the crowd to disperse and get the Harrisburg officers out of the crowd. Two Capitol police officers were injured during these efforts.
READ: Capitol Police officers injured in Harrisburg protests were treated, released from local hospital
Papenfuse and Carter, who also took part in the news conference, said this group was the one that ended up staying in the area and not dispersing, well past the curfew eventually set at 9 p.m.
Carter said he also felt many of the later protesters were from out of the area. Carter, who has lived in Harrisburg his whole life and is entrenched in the community, said he recognized many faces during his time at the protest, and that they were trying to calm things down.
Carter wasn’t called in until back up was requested in the afternoon, with the second wave of people, he said. At that point, he saw a lot of people he didn’t know. Carter was talking to protesters in smaller groups and said when he asked people he didn’t recognize what part of the city they were from, they walked away instead of answering.
“The Harrisburg residents I know, they were trying to de-escalate the situation," Carter said. “And I’m not saying that some Harrisburg residents weren’t involved, but for those I did not recognize, they would not tell me where it is that they came from.”
Papenfuse said Harrisburg residents who attended the earlier part of the protest told him they were surprised to hear that the feel of the event had changed after they left. He said he believed this newer group of people were anti-establishment.
“I think there were other agendas there at work,” Papenfuse said. “There were clearly agendas there -- anarchist and other agendas -- that were about inciting violence. And frankly inciting violence has nothing to do with the dialogue that we need to have about how we can deal with racial disparities within our communities and within our criminal justice system.”
However, at the end of the night, Carter said the police’s goal was to disperse the crowd before any violence started up again. He spoke with the chiefs of other departments about how to prevent the kind of damage that is occurring around the country.
“We agreed that we didn’t want nightfall to come and [find] that we were in the same situation [as other cities]," Carter said.
He said while they used a show of force, including having state police put on gas masks, it was never Carter’s intention to use tear gas.
“At no time were we going to deploy any of the tear gas,” Carter said. “We just wanted to have them leave peacefully.”
Now the police will review hours of body camera footage, street camera footage, and more to try to identify anyone involved in property damage, as well as the woman who attacked police, Carter said.
“I don’t know who this young lady is,” Carter said. “I was down there at the time. Hopefully, we have her image on bodycam or we have cameras down that way down on Second Street. Hopefully, we can pick her image up. If we can, we can do facial recognition, hopefully, and you know then we’d able to shed some more light on that.”
Riiiiiiiiiiiight
Because black people have never burnt their own hoods down
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
Perhaps you could arrest some of them, put them on trial, do an investigation, and let the whole country learn about them, where they came from, who is paying them, and where they learned their trade.
Soros must be paying a lot of money for “community rioters.”
I’ve written it before, but if there are FReepers that haven’t seen it before, Eric Papenfuse is friends with Bill Ayres the unrepentant terrorist and had Aryes come to his (Papenfuse) business, a bookstore, when Hussien was running for president. Ayres was campaigning for Obozo. He also allowed Occupy Harrisburg, and off shoot of Occupy Wall Street to uses his bookstore to organize protests. This is typical of Rat Mayors and Rat run cities. Like lightman wrote earlier, what is missing is rat poison.
Facial recognition or mask recognition? Maybe the authorities will start requiring people to have their name address and social security number clearly identified in their mask. Of course, you would not be able to wear that mask while voting.
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St. Elsewhere strikes again!
Did you think someone was going to take responsibility?
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Good to know.
Although I must say I was impressed that the mayor called them “rioters’ instead of “protestors”.
Chief Carter on the other hand was being way too charitable in calling the windshield breaker a “young LADY”.
That effort is for people who attend church, go to parks, try to have a life.
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Part of the scam is the DA eventually drop the charges.
And they’re puzzled - who is doing this?
.
I had someone tell me today that their cities mayor, right after she was elected, drove around their city 7 times and prayed at each major entrance. I wonder how many of these mayors and governors have even given God a second thought throughout this crisis. HE is waiting”
That was the former mayor.
The current mayor is a male...of course in Pennsylvania with a transgender Secretary of Health one never knows.
Were they arrested? Show me their mug shots and IDs.
I hear about Antifa from Trump and White Nationalists from the other side—but no one has presented any proof.
Until they do, I think it’s a bunch of thugs on one side, and weak leadership on the other.
SPJNK.
The *protests* in Harrisburg are occurring at the Capitol and spilling over into a white neighborhood that was gentrified back in the late 80's and early 90's. It is close to restaurant row and a lot of other businesses. It really is one of the few areas that are positive in the city. I was speaking to one resident today before he went looking for a new place to live. He was blocked yesterday from entering his neighborhood. He's been planning to buy a house for sometime, but now he has clearly decided it won't in Harrisburg City. He was looking on the West Shore, also known in these parts as the White Shore, aka Camp Hill.
Where are all the buses, who brought-in the commies/fascists/leftists/antifa/BLMers etc, parked? Probably with 2-3 blocks, I’d bet.
This was in another state.
ANTIFA is clearly organized and participating here.
That doesn’t mean that locals are not participating too.
One municipality I was reading about had 86% of the 36 people
they arrested, locals.
The meme is being proposed that nobody locally is doing
nuffin. Bull stuff!
aka "the great white west".
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