A Pittsburgh police officer waits at a stoplight in the city s Brighton Heights neighborhood.
Police accountability activists are launching a ballot initiative campaign to create a democratically-elected civilian council with full powers over the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
University of Pittsburgh law professor Jerry Dickinson is legal counsel for Stop the Station, one of the groups behind the effort. He said the creation of such a council would require an amendment to the city’s home rule charter.
“That would allow for this democratically elected board to be created and then have some power over approving or rejecting budgets, including the police budget,” Dickinson said.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police posted a formal invitation to bid on a contract last month; potential vendors would supply the department with the so-called "less-lethal" weapons used to disperse protesters last summer. A police spokesperson said the department uses the munitions in other scenarios like SWAT and domestic violence calls. The Alliance for Police Accountability wants to see the evidence.
The result wasnât what either of the siblings expected.
âI was arrested for conspiracy to commit assault and harassment,â she recalled. âI was fingerprinted. They took my mug shot. I was 13.â
Frustrated by his teacherâs lack of support, Brian Lee Jr. had ended up punching the classmate. Brian was arrested, too.
âI was fortunate,â Gabrielle said. âI have parents who were able to scrape money together and hire a very good attorney for me.â
Her school district eventually dropped the charges. But the whole experience, as demeaning as it was, laid the groundwork for her deciding to study law and help others by becoming an attorney, herself.
A new election means new ballot questions, and the often confusing legal language that comes with them. Below is an explainer to help voters sift through the legalese of the big ballot questions this primary. Five questions will appear on all Allegheny County ballots outside of the city of Pittsburgh, and six will appear on ballots within the city.
Pittsburgh City Ballot Question: No-knock warrant ban
Shall the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter be amended and supplemented by adding a new Article 10: Powers of the Pittsburgh Police, containing Section 1001, which shall bar employees of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police from executing warrants at any residence without knocking and announcing themselves?
Megan Guza | Tribune-Review
Brandi Fisher, president of the Alliance for Police Accountability, speaks outside the City-County Building in Downtown Pittsburgh on Wednesday, May 5, as part of opposition to the purchase of less-lethal munitions.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
Activists on Wednesday called on Pittsburgh officials to cancel a bid seeking supplies of “less-lethal” weapons like the ones deployed against protesters in Pittsburgh and other cities during civil unrest.
“These munitions are turned on people fighting for the rights of Black and brown community members,” said Joshua Friedman, of Bend the Arc Pittsburgh, which co-hosted the Downtown Pittsburgh event with the Alliance for Police Accountability. Also present were several protesters who say they were caught up in clouds of tear gas, smoke and other munitions during the summer’s protests.