Pittsburgh’s Police chief praises peaceful protests

PITTSBURGH — There’s been clashes at pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country. Some colleges and universities were forced to go remote or cancel commencement ceremonies for the sake of safety, but in Pittsburgh, it was a very different story.

After a week of protestors occupying Schenley Plaza and at one point, the Cathedral of Learning, there was no violence. There were only two arrests for misdemeanor trespass - only one of the arrests was a Pitt student. Campus police also said Sunday night, William Pitt Union was closed “out of an abundance of caution.”

Tuesday morning, a day after protestors promised they’d take down their tents and leave the park in the condition they found it, Schenley Plaza was empty and spotless. You wouldn’t even know there had been a week of protests with hundreds of people and dozens of tents covering the park.

Pittsburgh’s Police Chief, Larry Scirotto held a news conference Tuesday afternoon, praising the peaceful protestors and talking publicly about what worked so well in Pittsburgh.

“We didn’t come looking for a fight and neither did they,” Scirotto said. “All eyes are on us, and we have the opportunity to set the example for the country.”

Scirotto says that was his mindset during the week-long pro-Palestinian protests. Protestors were calling on Pitt to divest from Israel and its military operations. Despite the same message, campuses across the country from Columbia to Cal Poly have not seen the same peaceful environments.

“I think it was handled well,” Pitt student, Josh Mercado said. “Safety is the most important thing when it comes to lives.”

“They got their point across,” Steve Pruchniewski added. “You don’t have to yell and scream and break windows to get your point across.”

Pittsburgh’s top cop says his force had ample conversations in advance with Pitt leadership, pro-Palestinian protestors and counter-protestors.

“You have to have honest brokers on both sides,” Scirotto said.

Police also didn’t come out in civil unrest gear because there was no intel that violence would be an issue.

“It has got to be the mission of the bureau in that we want to do no harm,” Scirotto added.

Chief Scirotto said his department worked with protestors to set conditions, including:

• No antisemitic speech or behavior
• No violence or destruction of property
• No interfering with roads leading to hospitals
• No interrupting commencement ceremonies

“Those kids are COVID babies, they didn’t have high school graduations or proms,” Chief Scirotto said about the commencement ceremonies Sunday. “This was impactful in their lives.”

Sunday night, some campus streets were blocked off, but major hospital arteries like Forbes Avenue and Fifth Avenue remained clear as promised upfront by the protestors.

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