Mayor Peduto, Public Safety chief defend how Pittsburgh police handled weekend protests

Pittsburgh police and city officials on Monday rejected claims they left officers vulnerable during weekend protests and that they trampled protesters’ rights.

The peaceful protest, hijacked by a smaller group of instigators, could have been worse, officials said. Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said there is “concerning information” indicating the crowd hoped to burn more than two police cruisers.

Mayor Bill Peduto, in a passionate monologue outside police headquarters, said officers allowed protesters to carry on until they were no longer peaceful.

“At no time did Pittsburgh police become proactive in putting on gear until the acts of looting and violence began, until the rocks were thrown and until the incendiary devices were attempted to be put into the buildings to burn Downtown down,” he said. “We stopped that.”

The Saturday protests that bled into Sunday and Monday were spurred by the death of George Floyd while being detained last week in Minneapolis. Footage shows Floyd, who is black, prone on the ground while at least one white officer kneels on his neck as he pleads that he cannot breathe.

Two Pittsburgh police cruisers were set ablaze in the melee, and more than 70 businesses were damaged, police said.

“As we were sitting there and watching that patrol car burn, they were already marching up Centre Avenue to Zone 2 to burn the police station,” Peduto said.

Hissrich provided few details as to whether the instigators had the means to cause wide-scale destruction.

“As we go through some of the locations, we are finding evidence that is concerning, and I’ll leave it at that,” he said.

.@PghPolice looking for any video footage of Saturday’s violence in an effort to identify those who overtook a peaceful protest and sparked hours of violence and property damage. pic.twitter.com/OHW9FzCenb

— Megan Guza (@meganguzaTrib) June 1, 2020

At least 45 adults were arrested in the immediate aftermath, most for disorderly conduct and failure to disperse. Late Sunday, police issued a warrant for Brian Bartels, 20, who they say smashed out the windows of a police SUV, an act that touched off the violence. By 5 p.m. Monday, Bartels had turned himself in, authorities said.

Hissrich said police are asking those who might have videos or other evidence that could point police toward perpetrators of the violence to contact detectives at 412-323-7800.

“The investigation probably will not happen overnight,” Hissrich said. “It will take months and potentially up to years to determine who the suspects are and bring them to justice.”

Police union president Bob Swartzwelder, of the Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, railed against what he called the administration’s placement of personal image over police safety.

“They worry about the political fallout rather than the realities of modern law enforcement,” he said, alleging that “they do not care one iota about the safety of the officers they put into the situation.”

He said that trickles down to the leaders in Public Safety, who he said will bow to the city’s will if they “feel their job’s on the line.”

Peduto, Hissrich, and Chief Scott Schubert shot back.

“Shame on Mr. Swartzwelder,” said Peduto, a frequent foe of the union head. “That was an inappropriate attack against the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and I know he represents them, but it was completely wrong.”

He said he listened to the police radio the entire weekend, and he visited every spot in which police were stationed.

“I saw professionalism and preparedness,” he said.

Schubert and Hissrich criticized the Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Peduto said the instigators, who are “hellbent on destroying,” cannot take away from the protesters’ overarching message.

“We have to pay attention to the thousand more that are saying black lives matter, that are saying that there is injustice in this country, that racism is real,” he said.

He addressed critics who say he “allowed this to happen.”

“You’re damn right I did,” he said. “It’s called the First Amendment of the Constitution, and it was guaranteed to every one of those people who marched the day they became an American.”