It is being reported that Pittsburgh, PA is gearing up for major protests, in anticipation of Trump firing Robert Mueller in the next few days.
Pittsburgh police detectives will report for duty with riot gear Thursday, in anticipation of a potential large scale protest should President Trump decide to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Major Crimes Commander Victor Joseph instructed his unit to bring “a full uniform and any issued protective equipment (riot gear) with them to work until further notice,” WPXI.com reported.
The memo was issued based on “information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District.”
emphasis added
There is a video clip from CBS KDKA news in the report from Meagan Cerullo which spells out the details. The report includes 20 photos of police in riot gear from protests over a G-20 summit.
The WPXI link goes to a news story on Senate Leader Mitch McConnell blocking a bill in the Senate that would prevent Trump from summarily firing Mueller. How that connects with the order to the police in Pittsburgh is not clear, unless it is meant to explain why there might be unrest.
Checking with the KDKA website, this report has a bit more:
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich released a statement about the possible protests:
“The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police receives information daily that we evaluate and prepare for if the event should occur. Events can include anything from extreme weather to potential demonstrations.
“Often the events we prepare for do not occur. However, through an abundance of caution, we attempt to adequately prepare for an appropriate response.
“We receive information regularly about potential events and/or threats, assess the credibility of the information and plan for a potential event. In this case, we have not assessed the credibility of the potential for disturbances, and we do not have any knowledge of the President’s decision-making process.”
emphasis added
Clearly, there is conflicting information here, but it appears the groundwork is being done to prepare the police for confrontation with people protesting the firing of the Special Counsel — and that they are are being primed to expect violent protest. Or, at least that’s what this story suggests.
What other police departments are getting this information? Where is it coming from? What is it based on? The original source of this was through my AOL service, which has a notably conservative customer base, going by comments I see on news articles. Are they being prepped to expect some kind of radical leftist protests? The comments on the AOL news article are interesting, if suspect as such always are.
There were problems with AOL mail earlier today. Are they being hacked?
We live in crazy times people. If this story is true, that’s bad. If this story isn’t true or is inaccurate, that’s also bad. The rising mistrust of our news sources, our institutions, our law enforcement agencies, each other...
All of this is of a piece. This is what a descent into Fascism looks like. This is what it looks like when a country is being destabilized.
What are you hearing, and what do you think we need to do to prepare?
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2018 · 11:16:09 PM +00:00
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xaxnar
UPDATE: In the interest of being prepared, it might be worth getting a statement from local police departments on how they plan to handle any protests if Mueller is fired. Make them aware people are watching and want to know, and suggest they make a plan that respects everyone while allowing the exercise of our First Amendment rights.