we are more like than not

Last week, on September 24th and 25th, the G20 held its summit in Pittsburgh. Friday, over 70 political groups held a permitted march from Oakland to the North Side, via Downtown. Several thousand people walked through the streets with signs, puppets and voices. I went downtown to see my city's familiar streets emptied and transformed into a police state. I went to take pictures of the spectacle: throngs of riot cops and protesters. In short, i went to--as Pittsburghers say--be nebby.

What resulted, though, was a portrait of humanity largely ignored in the media reports. Yes, thousands of cops decked out in their best riot gear lined the streets in formation, strung the streetlights with caution tape and cloaked the roads with fences, jersey barriers and SWAT vehicles. A spectacular show of force: this is what a police state looks like. Yes, twenty-something white kids covered their faces with bandanas and taunted police. Yes, people carried signs and puppets and wore costumes, chanted and rallied and sang, or walked silently under the banner of their causes. This is what democracy looks like.

After Thursday's violent demonstrations, news sites posted images of lines of cops facing lines of masked anarchists obscured by clouds of OC gas, voices and tempers and fists raised.

But in what i saw, the divisions were not so clear. I saw people walking the streets side by side, sometimes holding hands, people watching the happening. A peaceable assembly. A lot of Americans, and others, too. What strikes me most about the photos is how thin a line separates all of these people. Cops smile through their visors, reporters trudge along with tired feet, children snack mid-rally at their parents' knees, locals lean over the caution tape for a good view, a cop scratches behind the ears of a resting k-9, an anarchist poses for a photo with an officer. People grin, people glare into the lens. Above all, what i saw was human beings.

Reductive? Maybe. But what is the meaning of a group like the G20 if not that we are all connected--yes, by the elusive thread of breath that weaves us all into life, but also by the weather-like system of economies. The way the quality of air i breathe in Pittsburgh relates to the pesticides sprayed in Colombian Amazon. The factory worker in Taiwan who stitched the hem of those bandanas. The rest of the examples: coffee, french fries, lemons, Coca-Cola, automobiles, missiles. The exchange rate of currencies banks don't quantify: food for shelter for education for safety for peace for breath.

Pictured here are curious onlookers, Pittsburgh residents, a literal army of police, protesters, students, reporters and photographers, Secret Service and National Guard, a Black Bloc of anarchists, workers (and maybe delegates) watching from the David Lawrence Convention Center where the Summit took place, North Siders whose apartments neighbor the park designated for the rally. Pictured here are people.

We are standing in a circle, choosing sides.

. . .

we are more alike than not: delegates, protesters, cops.



we are more alike than not: riot gear, suit and tie, black bloc.



we are more alike than not: fences, streets, sidewalks.




we are more alike than not: motorcade, foot traffic, dogs.




we are more alike than not: euros, yen, dollars.




we are more alike than not: permits, tear gas, riots.


we are more alike than not: rubber bullets, communique, puppets.


we are more alike than not: hotels, dorms, projects.


we are more alike than not: NBC, CNN, FOX.


we are more alike than not: corporation, mom and pop.


we are more alike than not: barefoot, black hawk, road block.






we are more alike than not: morning glories, boxcutters, vox.

. . .

Go to flickr to view the entire set of photos, in chronological order, of the People's March that took place in protest of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh on September 24th and 25th, 2009.