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9/24/2009 6:09 PM

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By Scott Beveridge, Staff writer sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com

This article has been read 1082 times.

PITTSBURGH – Marilyn Posner felt pride for the United States while watching a large group of Tibetan exiles decry China about the same time President Obama arrived in Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit.

“The fact that these people lived under a dictatorship are here freely, it says a lot about us,” said Posner, an East Washington resident.

She and her husband, David, decided to stay in Pittsburgh overnight after watching the Pirates play at PNC Park Wednesday to also witness the spectacle outside the summit and the tightest security to ever descend on downtown.

“It’s fascinating. It’s interesting,” said David Posner while about 150 Tibetans living in New York and Boston blocked Liberty Avenue, chanting for human rights in their home country.

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The mayhem that was expected in downtown, just outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center never materialized on the first afternoon of the two-day summit.

While tear gas was fired on protesters on the other side of the barricade separating the Strip District and downtown, police in the heart of the city appeared to outnumber the spectators, said former Washington Mayor Ken Westcott.

Westcott said he stayed overnight in the city, where he works as construction manager at Piatt Place, in case there was any trouble at the new luxury condominiums under construction near Market Square.

Other than the Tibetans on Liberty Avenue, there were nearly 25 Ethiopian immigrants protesting downtown for an end to genocide in that country and about a half-dozen Americans demanding for the right to freely smoke marijuana.

While the Tibetans chanted, sometimes in their native language, a small group of men spilled from a bar and began the football cheer, “Here we go Steelers, here we go.”

All of the marchers peacefully dispersed.

Westcott said the Pittsburgh police chief told him only 12,000 of the expected 35,000 protesters turned out for the summit.

“I took a walk around last night and it was like a ghost town,” he said. “There was nothing on the streets. It was my first time in Pittsburgh walking down the street and not seeing a car or people. It was kind of surreal.”

Marilyn Posner said it was interesting to see Burmese monks and television news crews from such places as Ukraine in Pittsburgh.

“We met people from the Indonesian delegation and the woman said they were so impressed by how friendly the people are here,” she said.

However, David Posner said he was disappointed that the public was denied access to the convention center to witness the discussions inside the summit.

“Only the demonstrators are allowed to be observed,” he said.

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