Tension increases on 2nd day of Pitt protests

By BILL SCHACKNER and MICHAEL DIVITTORIO Trib Total Media

A barricaded, pro-Palestinian encampment continued Monday outside the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning and protesters continued to gather in the area, with more than 300 people on the grounds, some of whom clashed with police.

A University of Pittsburgh Police officer briefly aimed what appeared to be a beanbag shotgun at a small group of protesters that attempted to rush up steps toward an encampment at the Cathedral of Learning.

Another Pitt officer confirmed it was one of their less or non-lethal tools.

Students erupted into chants of “put the gun down” and “hands up, don’t shoot” in response to the officers’ actions.

Many people lobbed water bottles over the police line to people in the encampment during the commotion. At least one chant leader with a megaphone lost their voice.

Prior to that incident, a couple of protesters talked with reporters. One student, who only identified themselves as Katelynn, said they used a pulley system in order to get food and water from the lawn to the encampment. “We’ve just been chanting (and) educating anyone who has any questions and has been coming up,” Katelynn, 21, said. “Just doing our best to spread the word about what’s going on here and why we are here.”

Katelynn is among the students who disapprove of Pitt having investments in entities that support Israel.

“I pay tuition here, a buttload of money and I don’t know where that money goes,” she said. “We are uncovering more and more where that money is going. Now we realize it is helping to fund a genocide. As a student who is a person of color and comes from poverty and being first gen, I can’t allow myself to stand for something like this.”

Another protester who identified themselves as Ilyas, 20, is entering his junior year at Carnegie Mellon University.

Ilyas also noted students’ efforts to get hygiene supplies and other things across a police line and into the encampment.

“Many people have family in there that go to Pitt. This is for us as much a personal issue as standing up for Palestine is a personal issue. … This is my city. I’m a Pittsburgher. This is part of my fight as a university student. This is as much as Carnegie Mellon as it is about Pitt.”