you caused this, not them.

I'm not gonna beat around the bush.

I got maced today. Hardcore. Here's the story:

Me and my roommate were checking out the campus. Just wanted to see what was going on, what the protests were about, what people were all up in arms about. Today was really just about the cops being ready and kids being angry that the cops were ready. So many complaining about "its the cops fault. if they werent here, the kids would have nothing to see." Wrong! It's YOUR fault for being here. The cops could be here and you can be at home. No big deal. You are here, standing around, organizing unlawfully, End Of Story.

Anyway, we were standing near Schenley Plaza, Hillman side and the recordings started going. "The chief of police has deemed this an unlawful assembly, blah blah, disperse or action will be taken including..." and so on. There was a riot vehicle with an LRAD mounted on it right in front of us and I was PRAYING they would use it just for a few seconds. No such luck. They told us to leave, I was bored so I told them I lived on Craig and asked how I could get there. The response: "It's too late for that." Ha! We went back around Hillman and Lawrence to Forbes by Hems. There was traffic backed up and a row of police at the front. Some kid steps up to the police and rubber bullets started FLYING. They bounced off everything, I was so shocked I didn't get hit on a ricochet. Moral? DON'T STEP UP ON RIOT POLICE. It's their job. They can not be too careful, you know? Totally justified. A lot more of nothing happened.

So. We decide to hit the road, get home. We have to go around UPMC and up the hill towards the Pete to get home. Outrageously out of our way. At this point we are not allowed to sit around and loiter. Understandable. We pass a group of kids doing just that. As we pass them two cops come down the hill and start spraying mace. I'm like no way and I turn around just as a cop comes up behind me and does a big ole sweep with his canister. Direct hit. (My very first thought as I saw that cloud was OMG YES. is that weird?) I didn't think I got it at first I just kept walking and Frank was in front of me walking normally, I thought he was cool too. Three seconds pass and I'm done. My eyes are shut and my face is destroying me haha. Frank too. Somehow amidst opening my eyes for half a second at a time and holding my hands up yelling "I AM JUST TRYING TO GET HOME" we made it a good amount of the way. A few other things happened but I'm not too worried about it.

Hindsight: Awesome experience. I now know what it feels like.