Having you paying attention to any of the coverage of the security crackdown at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh? Because these people, whoever they are, ain’t playing around! Basically, the entire city is engulfed in a giant cloud of tear gas, which I suppose is better than having the streets filled with blood from police baton beatdowns. Regardless, I have no idea what this kid in the video below did to basically get tossed like a beanbag into the back of a police cruiser, probably picked his nose and wiped a booger on a police barracade or something, not do I have any idea who these military-looking dudes are making the arrest but come on!

It’s been reported that 65 different law enforcement agencies are involved in G20 security, but there’s been no word on how many officers, many of them imported from around the country, are on the streets. Whoever they are—cops don’t typically dress in combat fatigues out of fear that it could undermine the military’s credibility and they’ve been made to look a lot like U.S. military officials, which is mildly disturbing to say the least. Here’s CNN’s Brian Todd being hit with tear gas yesterday:

Personally, I think I’d rather be tasered than be tear gassed, but that’s just me.

UPDATE: Here’s the semi-official word on the arrest shown in the first video:

The individuals involved in the 9/24/2009 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20.

It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation. Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area.