As today’s snowstorm slowly built, about sixteen members of Pennsylvania Friends of Animals (PFA) positioned themselves on two sidewalks in Independence National Historical Park to protest the horse-drawn carriage industry. They were there by dint of a hard-won permit from the Park, which gave them access to all sidewalks on Park property but prohibited them from gathering within 20 feet of the entrance or exit to a building, or within 12 feet of a pedestrian crossway.

The main group claimed some pavement on Sixth Street between Chestnut and Market Streets, in front of a line of horse-drawn carriages waiting for passengers. A smaller group stood near — but not too near — the corner of Fifth and Chestnut.

“To me, it’s not really a rational restriction,” said Leila Fusfeld, an organizer with PFA. “We could easily be right at that corner and not in the way of any pedestrian traffic. Or we could be here, outside that [12-foot buffer zone], and we could line up and block the whole sidewalk.”

Instead, the Fifth-and-Chestnut group stood back with their signs and offered pamphlets to passersby. As City Paper stood with them for about 10 minutes, two separate pedestrians stopped and showed interest in the cause.

Back at the line of horse-drawn carriages, the carriage operators were unhappy about their new company — though most agreed that, because of the weather, PFA’s presence hadn’t hurt business too much.

“I don’t care on a day like today,” said Ron Jones, an operator at the front of the line. “If it were 55 degrees, sunny Saturday, however, I’d have a major problem,” Jones added. In his view, the PFA are “completely uneducated” about the way horses who pull carriages are actually treated.

“You know how long wild horses typically live?” he asked. “Eight years. You know how long these guys will live? Thirty-five, forty years.” Jones said his shift ended at 1 p.m. today, but he stayed for the 2-5 p.m. demonstration because he didn’t want to let it seem like the activists had successfully intimidated anybody.

But another horse-drawn carriage operator who only wanted to be identified by her first name, Stella, said that business has been seriously down lately — even without a small crowd of protesters alongside the carriage line. “I worked four days this week and did no rides at all,” she explained. “I’m not making any money. It’s time for me to find another job.”

Both Stella and Jones did acknowledge the PFA activists’ right to demonstrate, but didn’t opine on the hurdles the PFA had to overcome to get their demonstration permit. And that battle is far from over, in the opinion of Brandon Gittelman, the chief coordinator of the PFA’s anti-horse-drawn-carriage campaign.

“I think the ACLU’s going to continue to push for getting the rules of the Park and its permit system permanently changed on the books,” he said, standing in the group next to the carriages, blowing on his fingers as snow began to swirl. “And just the simple fact that we had to apply for a permit — I think that’s something they’re going to continue to pursue.”

When Pennsylvania Friends of Animals (PFA) demonstrate against the horse-drawn carriage industry this Saturday, they’ll be able to gather on any sidewalk in the Independence National Historical Park in groups of up to twenty, soliciting petition signatures and distributing leaflets — just so long as they’re not within 20 feet of a building entrance or exit, or within 12 feet of a street corner.

Those were the terms of the permit negotiated between PFA and the Park over the past two days, and signed this afternoon by U.S. District Court Judge John Fullam. These terms may seem extreme for a free-speech demonstration on, well, the doorstep of Independence Hall (site of the signing of the U.S. Constitution).

After all, the buffer zones imposed on PFA are even more extreme than the buffer zones that used to exist around Pittsburgh abortion clinics before they were invalidated last month by the Third Circuit — on the grounds that the existence of the zones intruded upon the First Amendment rights of abortion protestors.

And those weren’t the most severe restrictions that the Park tried to attach to Saturday’s permit. Originally, the Park asked that PFA demonstrators keep 20 feet away from “any pedestrian crossway”, which would only leave them access to the very middle of each sidewalk.

In the end, according to ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper, Judge Fullam “split the baby”. He ruled that activists could not gather within 12 feet of any crossway — but could enter the 12-foot buffer zone to hand someone a leaflet and then retreat. “It is so much more than the Park Service was willing to give in the past that we consider it a great victory,” Roper said.

Still unresolved, of course, is the issue of why activists should have to hire ACLU attorneys and sue Independence Park before they’re granted one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed to U.S. citizens. But one step at a time. City Paper will be at the PFA protest on Saturday to see how well both sides honor the permit.

Intrepid CP contributor Daniel Schwartz went to some protest today that we didn’t even know about, and wrote about it. So here’s his report.

Today, at 11 a.m., the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) led a protest against the wave of foreclosures sweeping across Philadelphia and the rest of the country.  National Organizer for the PPEHRC, Cheri Honkala, directed the protest at Sixth and Arch, assembling more than 60 individuals and representatives from local groups like the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Casino Free Philadelphia, and Penn’s anti-poverty activist group, Penn Haven.

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Photo | Nate Boguszewski

For more of Nate’s G20 photos, click the photo or here.

Matt Stroud is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer. He’s written for City Paper about porn star Stoya, subterranean Philadelphia, juvenile life sentences and anarchist newspaper The Defenestrator. He writes regularly at True/Slant (where this piece first appeared) and will be filing daily reports from the G20 Summit this week.

Today’s protests seemed surprisingly peaceful. At least where I was — marching with I’d guess about 2,000 people along Fifth Avenue from Oakland toward the City County Building —the streets had been blocked off, police and military were posted on sidewalks and sidestreets, and no authority figure was (as far as I could see) instructed to intervene forcibly. This was, as advertised, a “sanctioned” rally — which apparently means no one gets gassed. Knowing this, one might ask: Why didn’t Pittsburgh Organizing Group — the Anarchist group largely responsible for yesterday’s gathering — get a permit to lawfully assemble yesterday?

A Post-Gazette article last week — working off a press release — implied POG’s mission was to wreak havoc. But speaking to a few sources today — who asked not to be named (because that’s what many young Anarchists tend to do) — POG applied for permits through the city and were denied.

“They go through the same horseshit at every political event like this,” said my unidentified source. “[The City tells] every organizer a host of totally inconsistent things about what’s required to get a permit, then they change their story consistently until the week before the event. They hand out permits seemingly at random and that’s the plan — to disrupt and disorganize any semblance of unity.”

Take what you will from that. Obviously, both the City of Pittsburgh and POG have interests in this regard:

• First, it vilifies police if they’re forced to violently repress “peaceful protesters.” This morphs into positive marketing for POG — who can use the police’s tear gas and fired pellets as activist ammunition for future anti-capitalist rallies.

• On the other hand, it makes the city look supportive if they treat permitted protesters well; it makes them look strong if they have no trouble censuring groups who haven’t filled out the proper forms.

If POG did, in fact, apply for and get denied for permits, why did the city refuse their application and support today’s protest instead? Is it possible that was the best option for everyone?

Anyway. While we’re on the topic of unclear messages: The legendary Dave Mansueto posted some interesting footage from the protests yesterday, where John Oliver, of Daily Show fame, made some pointed commentary about 1) Pittsburgh’s ridiculous police presence and 2) the protests general lack of cohesion:

The police do, in fact, have their message straight.

Check next week’s print issue for answers and commentary about G20 and Pittsburgh’s moment in the international spotlight.

Matt Stroud is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer. He’s written for City Paper about porn star Stoya, subterranean Philadelphia, juvenile life sentences and anarchist newspaper The Defenestrator. He writes regularly at True/Slant (where this piece first appeared) and will be filing daily reports from the G20 Summit this week.

So perhaps I’ll be the billionth newsperson to report I was tear gassed this afternoon, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Interesting day.

Earlier this morning, as briefly discussed, I camped out at the New and Glimmering August Wilson Center. on Liberty Ave., about 300 feet from G20’s host location, The David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Walk outside, into the empty corridor by the Convention Center — in the “red zone”; the second-to-highest security area in the city — and watch a group of Buddhist protesters, actual monks in robes, chanting and waving signs in an effort to Save Burma — or encourage G20 leaders to give a shit about Burma. Ethiopians show up next, file in across the street. They’re here from Philadelphia to “free Africa from dictators!” “G20 stop assisting genocide in Africa!” I stop to talk with one of them and she tells me both of her brothers have been imprisoned by Meles Zenawi. There is a language barrier, but I’m gradually getting more of the story: her brother was imprisoned at a political protest in 2003… perhaps the Anuak Conflict? He remains incarcerated. I’m about to get more information but as this conversation is going on about 300 cops emerge out of nowhere, make a right off Smithfield and march down Liberty Ave. It’s enough to make both of us stop and stare. The cops reach the giant metal fence that’s been erected at Tenth St. and halt. They stand at attention in front of the monks, stay there for a full minute, threateningly, then turn around and leave.

Troopers march down Liberty Ave. in Pittsburgh

“What is dis?” the Ethiopian woman asks me and I can do nothing but shrug. I have no idea. Where am I? Her colleagues begin yelling and I realize I’ve got tears in my eyes.

It was widely advertised that a major rally was being organized this afternoon at Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville. Much of the city has been shut down — the roads inaccessible and blocked by marines, state troopers, and metro police from as far away as Louisville — and I’m forced to bike a mile or so out of my way to get there. En route, I run into five kids standing around with those giant posters of bloody dead fetuses handing out pamphlets talking about the “shocking horror of abortion.” They ask me if I’ve been saved and I tell them I have not been. I consider shadowing these kids but can’t bring myself to focus all my coverage on the odd idiosyncrasies of the Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism. Maybe tomorrow. Onward.

The first things I notice biking up to the protest are that 1) Arsenal Park is encased in long stone walls, and 2) there are more journalists here than protesters; everyone seems to have either a camera or a notepad. Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping is here and talking about the evils of capitalism — a topic so trite in this environment that it’s comical. I meet up with some Colleagues and sit in the sun, waiting. Chants begin and die in all directions. The lamest of these is:

“Whose streets?

“Our Streets.

“Whose war?

“Their war!”

Another, perhaps misplaced, considering the protests economic bases, is this:

“One, two, three, for

“we dont want your racist war.

“Five, six, seven, eight,

“no more killing, no more hate.”

An anarchist himself, aged and wise, perhaps a bit jaded, one of my colleagues begins his own chant:

“One, two,

“Three, four

“Five, six,

“Seven, eight!”

This one dies the fastest.

The actual protest begins around 2:30pm and my abortion friends have shown up with some of their elder friends and a megaphone. They battle for airspace with anarchists who have also brought megaphones. There’s literal anarchy for a moment — made even worse when the Birthers I met earlier show up with their own goddamn megaphone — but regardless, marchers begin moving toward the exits chanting whatever.

The march has begun! And it’s immediately stopped. Cops barricade the entrances with dogs and batons. The aforementioned colleague yells, extremely sarcastically, “Somebody call the police!” There’s this weird twenty minutes or so where a couple hundred marchers ping pong from exit to exit, cops toying with them, until they’re finally allowed to leave toward Liberty Ave.

Within two blocks of their Liberty entry point, police set up massive barriers with speakers atop giant military-style SWAT wagons and a recording blares out a notice that everyone — “regardless of your purposes here” — is part of an “unlawful assembly.” The recording threatens that everyone will be forcefully detained or dealt with using “other police action” if they don’t leave. Like now.

But the police have only blocked one street: Liberty Ave. So the crowd largely marches downhill toward Butler Street, and various arms of the march begin branching off onto other side streets. At one point, there’s a kind of mutual gasp in the crowd (which is blocking several streets at this point) and everyone looks behind them to see a group of black clad protesters rolling a ten-foot-wide steel dumpster down a fairly steep hill. I bike behind them and follow down a side street where they’re eventually stopped. The police recording blares once more, this time with a screeching warning tone. A few people around me say “Oh, shit” and then a cloud of smoke plumes upward from the street by the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. The smell is like a charred house after a fire — strongly sour and filled with ammonia and ash. My eyes begin to well up with tears and my nose begins to tingle — initially a twinge, then a pain, heat attacking my nostrils and throat. I begin coughing and so does everyone around me. “Take your contacts out of your eye,” someone yells, and we flee, head back up Penn Ave. To avoid various police blockades, most in attendance shoot off into different directions. Penn Ave. is clear within ten minutes.

We notice people have begun sticking their heads out of windows. A colleague points out it’s much like the Civil War — everyone coming outside to watch the battle go down.

We receive word that the protest has amped up again at 34th and Liberty. At least 200 cops gather. There’s a stalemate for at least an hour. I leave to file this report. As far as I know the stalemate is still going on. It’ll go on all week if today’s security measures are any indication.

Related

• Tear gas flies in Pittsburgh at the G20 conference (Digital Journal)
• Teargas used on protesters at G20 summit in Pittsburgh (Guardian UK)
• For Pittsburgh, G-20 Meeting Is a Mixed Blessing (New York Times)
• Raw Video: An Up-Close View of the G20 Protests (The Associated Press)

Last week,  I wrote about local filmmaker Jamie Moffett discovering the disturbing story of the torture and murder of a Salvadoran activist while working on an unrelated documentary about that country’s civil war.

In brief: While filming, Moffett learned that Marcelo Rivera, a small-town activist known for leading local opposition to gold mining by the Canadian-based Pacific Rim company, had gone missing. Not long after, he learned that Rivera’s body had turned up at the bottom of a unused well. While officials claimed that Rivera had been killed in a bar brawl, the body showed signs that the activist had been tortured and strangled before being dumped in the hole.

Moffett headed out to Rivera’s hometown of San Isidro to witness and film his funeral. There, he became close to the man’s family. They believe Rivera was killed for his activism, and who fear retribution themselves.

In my article, I mentioned a short film Moffett had made upon returning. It’s online now, and you can watch it below.

To learn more about the film you can visit Moffett’s Web site, where he’s also set up an online letter-writing campaign urging Senator Arlen Specter to investigate the incident as well as Pacific Rim’s activities in the region.

Photo | Tom Dreisbach

Sally Riley demonstrates in support of a public health care option.

Local supporters of a government-run health care plan met yesterday with members of Senator Arlen Specter’s staff. Prior to the meeting, a group of about 20, organized by MoveOn.org Political Action, demonstrated in front of the Senator’s office on Sixth and Arch streets.

The rally came on the tail of President Obama’s Wednesday press conference on health care, and a continued debate about reform in congress. The President supports a public health care plan, which the federal government would administer.

At Thursday’s rally, the demonstrators expressed support for the President’s position, and swapped personal stories regarding health care.

Bill Leatherbee, a 71-year-old self-employed architect, came out to the rally because of his stepdaughter. “She’s 28 years old,” he said, “but has the mental capacity of a four-year-old.” According to Leatherbee, her mental handicap necessitates constant professional supervision — a cost of about $50,000 a year. Neither his nor his wife’s health insurance plans cover his stepdaughter’s condition, he says. “We don’t know when we can retire, because we don’t know how we can pay for this.”

Eleanor Toub volunteers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She works with children in the outpatient day hospital at CHOP, which provides care to children with cancer. “I look at parents and it’s absolutely heartbreaking,” she says. “People who have all this horror in their lives have to decide how they can pay so that someone can live.”

Matt Stetson is 49 years old and recently became unemployed. Due to a pre-existing heart condition — Stetson has a bicuspid aorta — he hasn’t been able to find a new health insurance plan since he lost his COBRA coverage in March 2009. Stetson says his cardiologist sees no reason for the refusal of coverage, but his doctor has no say in the matter. “I could keep sending applications, but there’s a non-refundable fee,” he says. “I just gave up after a while.”

After sharing their stories, MoveOn field organizer Emily Southard picked four demonstrators to meet with members of Specter’s staff and urge the senator to support a public health care option. Demonstrators say they delivered a letter to Specter’s office (available after the jump) after discussing their own health care situations.

Specter’s office did not allow City Paper into the meeting. Over the weekend, Specter’s press secretary sent us the Senator’s latest statements regarding health care and the public option. In these statements, Specter calls a version of the public option, which Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has put forth, “a good idea.� Sen. Schumer’s more moderate proposed health care plan would create a public option comparable to existing private insurance plans. This plan would fund a public option without using tax revenue or government appropriations. Instead of paying health care providers at the typically lower Medicare rate, Sen. Schumer’s plan would provide compensation similar to that of private insurers. (This paragraph was added as an update).

On May 18, less than a month after joining the Democratic Party, Specter spoke to Congress about health care reform, though never made any statements explicitly supporting or opposing a public option. “I am open to discussing the best method in which to cover all Americans,” he stated, “including considering a public plan option and look forward to examining all of the options with my colleagues as the legislation progresses.”

Demonstrators left the meeting in good spirits, though unconvinced of the Senator’s support.

“They were pleasant,” demonstrator Sally Riley said of Specter’s staff. “They told us to get after the Republicans who were preventing reform.”

“They were very receptive,” said Bill Leatherbee following the meeting. “But they stopped short of supporting the public option.”

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For some adoptees (people raised by adoptive parents), finding their birth parents is important — it gives them a better sense of their origins and identity. But it’s not always easy. In most states, including Pennsylvania, adoptees do not have the right to their original birth certificate. Opponents of opening the records say it would violate the privacy of birth parents (who may not want to be found).

A group called Adoptee Rights doesn’t see things this way, and will be holding a rally tomorrow, Jul. 21, at 11 a.m., at People’s Plaza (5th and Market) to call for the records to be opened. The protesters will travel from Independence Mall to the Convention Center, where the opening day of the National Conference of State Legislatures will be taking place. If you can’t make it, Adoptee Rights needs signatures for its letter writing campaign to state representatives. Stop by its booth in the Convention Center July 21 – 23 or visit its website, adopteerights.net, for more information.

Irvin Rosenfeld smokes marijuana ten times a day, but he doesn’t get high.

The Virginia stockbroker suffers from a rare condition that causes bone tumors to grow sporadically, often into the muscle and veins, which could potentially kill him. But it hasn’t — in fact, he has’t had a tumor for 33 years — and Rosenfeld credits medical marijuana, supplied directly by the National Institutes of Health. He’s America’s longest-surviving federal cannabis patient.

“Smoking is the only way to really get the medicine. The cannabis is the best thing that worked for me,� he says.

Every 25 days, he picks up a tin of 300 pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes. The “marijuanettes� are grown under NIH contract by the University of Mississippi. Scientists believe he doesn’t get high because his cannabinoid receptors, which include millions of tiny fibers spread throughout humans’ bodies that allow us to ‘get high,’ are deformed.

Rosenfeld fights for the legalization of medical cannabis for patients not as fortunate as himself. “When you have a disorder, it sucks,� he says. “I was lucky enough that I was able to discover the right medicine for me. I just can’t sit back and not try to help others.�

Others are joining him. A candlelight vigil for patients who have died waiting for medical marijuana will be held this Saturday, July 11 at the Independence Mall visitor center. The vigil will also serve as a rally for HB1393, a bill that would create Pennsylvania’s first legalized medical marijuana program. It will be from 8:30 to 10 p.m.

Introduced by State Representative Mark B. Cohen (D-Philadelphia) and endorsed by the National Lawyers Guild Philadelphia Chapter, the bill has been referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee with public hearings expected this summer.

Rep. Cohen believes that, aside from helping suffering patients, legalizing medical marijuana could increase the state’s revenue by at least $25 million in taxes. If the bill passes, PA could become the 14th state to allow medical marijuana.

Under HB 1393, Pennsylvanians would not only be permitted to be prescribed medical cannabis, but also grow it. This would be of particular interest to Bradley D. Walter, a Scranton native and HIV patient.* Walter uses marijuana to ease the side effects of his antiviral medication, which are, on some days “debilitating,� he says. He takes it in the form of Marinol, a synthetic THC pill.

“The pills are the only medication I found that allows me to live a normal life,� he says, “and removes most of my side effects,� which include intense stomach pains, extreme hunger and nausea.

But at $60 a pill, Marinol costs him an astronomical $1,297 a month. He suggests that for a few bucks, he could grow marijuana in his basement and eliminate a lot of his costs.

He continues to fight for access to the whole-plant cannabis, and will fly in from Florida to testify at Pennsylvania’s public hearings this summer.

*This post has been changed. It originally said Mr. Walter lives in Florida, but he is a Pennsylvania resident.

I know that to some extent, a lot of progressives felt, after November’s election, that they had done their part in electing the right guy, and that Obama would soon be in charge, and we could all step back from politics a little and pay attention to our individual lives now (I know I did, at least insofar as national politics goes …. I can’t really do that at the local level, because of the whole job thing).

But for Obama to really make things happen in Washington, he’s going to need an amicable congress, and for congress to be amicable to progressive ideas, they’re probably going to need some progressive pressure.

So it’s good to see things like this happening:

Health Care For America Now Pennsylvania Bringing 2000 People to Washington for Nationwide Health Care Rally and Pennsylvania Town Hall. Senator Sestak and Representatives Sestak, Dahlkemper, Schwartz and Doyle will join PA Town Hall

Philadelphia, PA—The Pennsylvania Health Care For America (HCAN) organization and its coalition partners will be busing 2000 people to a nationwide rally for quality, affordable health care at Upper Senate Park. Eight thousand people are expected from around the country at the rally. HCAN will send 20 buses from Pennsylvania to Washington, DC while its partners—SEIU AFSCME, the United Steel Workers, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electricians—will send another sixteen.

Other HCAN state organizations will be sending thousands of people as well. And no, the event won’t be as big as, say, some of the old anti-Iraq War protests that congress ignored. It’s not going to in-and-of-itself change the health care debate. But hopefully it’s part of a process in which it becomes gradually clear to congresspeople that they can’t afford not to support health care reform, because people really care about it, and are paying attention, and expecting results (a process, I should note, that HCAN has been leading).

This just in from Photostream All Star Moocatmoocat

Per Mousavi’s calls for worlwide support of the Iranian protestors this weekend, one is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday June 20  2 pm, N. side of Rittenhouse Square (Walnut between 18th & 19th)

Details

Photos | Brian Howard’s Android Phone

Was able to stop briefly at the protest yesterday held by Philadelphia Iranians on the north side of Rittenhouse Square. The peaceful gathering featured what appeared to be between 150 and 200 protesters chanting things like “liar liar” and “the people united will never be defeated,” and holding signs (some homemade, some distributed by organizers) as police, reporters, onlookers and passing traffic observed. Stay tuned for a full report.

whereismyvote.org

A group of Iranian college students will be holding a silent protest this evening from 5 p.m. till 8 p.m. on the north side of Rittenhouse Square to demonstrate against the election process in Iran wherein incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has scored what many feel is a fraudulent victory over Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Marjan Savoktakin, a 26-year-old electrical engineering Ph.D candidate at Penn, is one of the organizers of the Philly protest. She was born in Tehran and lived there until she came to the U.S. to attend college as an 18-year-old. “We are basically students from Penn, Drexel, Temple and other area schools, and some other Iranians who live in the area,� she explains. “We are going to demonstrate against the flawed election process and we are asking the world media not to jump to conclusions and accept the results.�

Savoktakin is expecting between 50 and 75 protesters — most either born in Iran or second generation Americans. “We wanted to support our countrymen, basically,� she explains on the phone. “The are actually demonstrating peacefully in Iran and they are being prosecuted for it.�

She makes it clear that “we are not protesting against the results; we are protesting against the process. There are a lot of indications that show the results are flawed.�

“Basically the Iranian media is not covering the process that much,� she says, adding that Internet access in the country is low, further hampering the dispersal of information.

On the apparent sea change in Americans’ views of Iranians as a result of the election protests, Savoktakin says excitedly, “I would be very pleased if this is the case. It’s a matter of supporting democracy. We have the right to peacefully demonstrate. No one can take that away from us. Our voices are finally being heard. The world finally realizes that. We want to have peaceful democratic process in Iran. That would be a very pivotal process. We are not a danger to the world. We don’t want to be considered an enemy to other countries. We want to live peacefully with the rest of the world.�

For more information on the protest, e-mail m.savoktakin@gmail.com

Previously: The Iranian protests on YouTube

Related: Obama to Twitter: Your site upgrade can wait, Iranians need you.

Also related: Obama sez “Ahmadinejad, Mousvi: what’s the diff?”