Scott Olsen, Iraq veteran injured in police raid of Occupy Oakland: how you can help

Update, Oct. 27, 5pm Pacific: Olsen will undergo brain surgery "within the next one or two days."

In the photo above, Veterans For Peace member Scott Olsen, who is identified as a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, lies on the street after being struck in the head by a police projectile in Oakland, California, during eviction of the Occupy Oakland encampment.

The police attack occurred Tuesday night, and was captured in video blogged in previous Boing Boing posts.

How to help: Iraq Veterans Against The War has a link here and Veterans for Peace has a link here where you can donate to help cover Olsen's medical expenses.

At the time of this blog post, Olsen remains in a hospital in Oakland, CA, in "fair" condition, upgraded from "critical." He received skull fractures. Yesterday he was in a medically-induced coma, and he has undergone surgery. His roommate Keith Shannon reported to Current TV's Keith Olbermann today that Olsen can now breathe on his own, but will likely need more surgery.

UPDATE: The Guardian reports:

Scott Olsen requires surgery to relive the pressure on his brain, according to his roommate Keith Shannon. "Neurosurgeons have decided he needs surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain and it will happen in a day or two," Shannon said. He added that Olsen's parents should be arriving at the hospital to be with their son shortly.

The name and affiliation of the officer who threw a projectile at Olson and the protesters who were helping him has not yet been publicly reported.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Action • demonstration • occupy oakland • occupy wall street • ows • protest

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franka_645

Here is some footage of what exactly it was that Scott Olsen did to provoke them.

http://vimeo.com/31187119

nothing.
- Harold Combs
  
  He was illegally occupying a public space, look it up, and not complying with a lawful order. I have no sympathy for these layabouts who think poverty is having to pay for an iPhone bill or the loan they willingly took out. I have lived in real poverty. Now I do not because I am in America and made use of my opportunity not sitting around whining because someone in Washington has more than I do.
  - marilove
    
    BOOTSTRAPS!!!!
    
    Do you honestly think that an unarmed, non-violent protester needed to be put into A COMA simply for a misdemeanor? Wow.
  - http://twitter.com/wi_ngo wingo shackleford
    
    I’ve seen lots of comments around the ‘nets similar to this one. I don’t know what kind of sick people think he actually *deserved* to have his head smashed, simply for ‘not complying’. Who makes the order, and who even says it was ‘lawful’? Far as I can tell he was exorcizing his 1st amendment rights, nothing more.
    
    Very, very saddening that some people are so misguided.
  - coffee100
    
    > He was illegally occupying a public space, look it up, and not complying with a lawful order.
    
    He is also entitled to due process and further enjoys the protection of the laws of the state of California which prohibits attacking an unarmed peacefully protesting citizen by firing a weapon at their head.
    
    If your ambition is to see Scott Olsen prosecuted for vagrancy then I presume you are also eager to see his attacker or attackers prosecuted for assault and recklessly endangering the lives and safety of those trying to render aid by launching an explosive device into a crowd? What was the police-approved alternative? Leave him to bleed in the streets? Would such a scene be less illegal if the police had “lawfully ordered” them not to render assistance?
    
    Under the First Amendment the right to peaceably assemble has the same precedence as the right of free speech. It may not be infringed by any act of government. Any law which prohibits, regulates or otherwise interferes with the free assembly of American citizens in protest is unconstitutional on its face: as void as a law prohibiting the distribution of a newspaper or regulating the content of a political speech.
    
    One of the most distressing trends in recent American history is this growing myth that the Constitution is some kind of legal morality tale designed to look good on a textbook cover.
    
    The Constitution is the law and it is superior to every other law in this country. Even if the OWS movement settles on no other agreed-upon message, my hope is their courage at least reminds us that first offended by the shameful thing America has become is the Constitution.
http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

I just tried to donate but got an error message:

Processor Message: : SGS-020006:
Please contact merchant services.

Here’s to hoping they clear things up.
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  bummer. will try to alert them.
- http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce
  
  I was able to make the donation this morning!
  
  You can too:
  https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7842
http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

This only provides more evidence that the problem isn’t with Wall Street at all, it’s with our Government. It wasn’t a banker who hurt Scott Olsen. It wasn’t a 1-percenter who paid someone to hurt Scott Olsen. It was government cracking down on citizens practicing free speech. The sad thing is that some people have sat through 3 years of this and still think that Obama is on their side. Lemmings.
- grimc
  
  Odd, I don’t have any trouble seeing problems with both Wall Street and the government.
  - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
    
    The government is representative of the people. Companies are accountable to their shareholders.
    
    You commented on this with a computer made by a company on Wall Street that is aggressively driving down prices, pushing production overseas, polluting the environment, paying its workers as low as it can, and increasing profits. Why are you mad at them for doing what you paid them to do?Be mad at the government – YOUR representative that bailed them out, provided them tax loopholes, and provided them grants, tax breaks and incentives. #occupythewhitehouse
    - PhosPhorious
      
      “YOUR representative that bailed them out, provided them tax loopholes, and provided them grants, tax breaks and incentives.”
      
      If it’s wrong for the government to give corporations tax payer money in the form of bailouts, grants etc., then it is wrong for the corporations to take that money.
      
      We can vote out our politicians. How do we express our displeasure with the corporations?
      
      Without getting shot in the face, I mean. . .
    - grimc
      
      I paid them to sell me a computer, not drive jobs overseas. They’re not on Wall Street, they’re in Cupertino. And OWS is about a lot of things, but primarily the financial industry, not computer manufacturers. As far as I know, Apple did not receive any bailouts. Loopholes, tax breaks, etc., sure, but no bailouts.
      
      If you’re going to try and hijack OWS, you and the other Paulites are going to have to work out a slicker spiel. At least one that doesn’t require leaps in logic. And if you’re not, you’d better find another hashtag because occupythewhitehouse is already taken by Paulites.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Seriously, the paultard moles are the worst.
    - AnthonyC
      
      Your first premise is the one being questioned. *Is* the government representative of the peopleA? Which people? Do you honestly believe our elected officials are the best officials we could get? Or is it just that they are the ones whose views and connections get them enough money/attention to get on the ballot and get elected?
      
      Your second premise is misleading. Corporations are required to try to maximize shareholder return; it isn’t as though the shareholders can demand specific changes in corporate policy.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5NVZ73HM3UHDER2GFEDIQONJ3M Garrett Mace
  
  Same problem, different angle. Don’t get so caught in a group mentality that you automatically feel antagonism for anyone who doesn’t self identify with your group. That way leads to Communism (as historically implemented) or Fascism, with the end result being the same: a few people having all the power. http://i.imgur.com/KsKme.jpg
- CGulow
  
  The problem is not just with Wall Street or the Government, the problem is with everyone. We all decide how to live and how to treat the people around us. The current economic system did not simply appear. It was put into place by EVERYONE who participated in the current economic game. Remember that an economic system is just a collection of fictional rules we all agree to play under. Even if you don’t understand them, don’t agree with them or don’t have any game tokens.
  The 1% are not special humans. They simply have more tokens and are ensconced within a set of game rules that allow them to maintain a large supply of tokens.
  The rules were created by people. We can change the rules. We DO NOT have to live with these rules.
  
  We DO NOT have to live with these rules.
  
  We DO NOT have to live with these rules.
  
  We DO NOT have to live with these rules.
  - chellberty
    
    They do not understand the”The Wealth of Nations” we have monopolies and consolidation. The model assumes the absence of a monopoly, both in the
    labour and economic markets. Also Scum made corporations people; soulless entities that can’t legally do the moral or just thing for the customer or environment. The left wing needed to purge centrism and resist being pulled to the center and now they are the rightwing and the Teabaggers are the animalcrazy farm.
  - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
    
    We all live by their rules. You’re kidding yourself.
    - CGulow
      
      You missed the point of what I wrote. And I think you did so intentionally. You sound like you hate people.
    - AnthonyC
      
      We *do,* but we don’t *have to.* Lion eats a zebra; if the whole herd of zebra had tried to trample the lions the lions would have lost. In nature this doesn’t happen because nature selects against zebras with a tendency to attack lions.
      
      But humans have minds capable of planning, collaboration, and communication. We *can* change the rules, and if 99% of the planet *really* wanted to do something there’s not much the other 1% could do about it.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The sad thing is that some people have sat through 3 years of this and still think that Obama is on their side.
  
  Exactly! President Obama sent federal troops in disguise to Oakland, and he did it out of petty spite. It had absolutely nothing to do with protecting the interests of the ultra-wealthy. Damn him and his scaly dewlap!
  - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
    
    We wouldn’t be in this mess if he had balanced the budget (like he promised), brought the troops home (like he promised), worked to close corporate loopholes (like he promised), stopped incentivizing companies to move overseas (like he promised), stopped taking money from corporations (like he promised), stopped bailing out corporations (like he promised), started working across party lines (like he promised), and grew the economy and brought down the unemployment rate (like he promised).
    - PhosPhorious
      
      “We wouldn’t be in this mess if he had balanced the budget (like he promised), brought the troops home (like he promised), worked to close corporate loopholes (like he promised), stopped incentivizing companies to move overseas (like he promised), stopped taking money from corporations (like he promised), stopped bailing out corporations (like he promised), started working across party lines (like he promised), and grew the economy and brought down the unemployment rate (like he promised).”
      
      Congress does all those things. The president is not authorized to pass legislation. He can encourage legislation, and sign what Congress gives him, but in the two years that the Tea Baggers have been in the House, they have not produced a single piece of economic legislation worth a damn.
      
      And the troops being brought home has nothing to do with OWS. . . and also they are being brought home at the end of this year.
      
      Tea Baggers were not shot in the face. OWSers were. The difference? Tea Baggers are against the government, OWS is against the corporations.
      
      You do the math.
      - Mark_Frauenfelder
        
        “The Tea Baggers are against the government.”
        
        Except for the part of the government that imprisons millions of people, wages a reckless and futile “war on drugs,” wages unnecessary and genocidal wars, raids medical marijuana dispensaries, enforces an unconstitutional Patriot Act, wastes billions erecting a porous wall between the US and Mexico, and cracks the skulls of war veterans who support OWS.
        
        The Tea Baggers like that part of the government.
      - marilove
        
        Oh, and don’t forget: Keeping the gays out of the military (or at least keeping them from being open about their sexuality and therefore their families and loved ones back home); keeping women from making choices about their own bodies; and making sure the evil gays don’t get married.
        
        Then, the Tea Baggers are all for government in our lives. Because of morality and the children and stuff. Oh and because gays are icky.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      I don’t like Obama at all, but that list is mostly silly. He’s not God-Emperor-Potentate and he can’t do anything if Congress opposes every single thing that he does just to be obstructionist. As to the ‘working across party lines’, you’re right. He mostly seems to ally with the Republican Party and rarely tries to appease the Democrats.
      - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
        
        Antinous – Don’t hold me accountable for his promises. These were HIS words, not mine. Remember the two words he used, right? ”Hope and change”…. he was the “chosen one” that was going to turn this country around. Why does everyone appease this guy? Our economy is in the toilet, we have a bigger wealth/poverty gap, minorities are worse off, deaths in wars are up, military spending is up, Gitmo is still open… and you guys want to defend him. Like I said. Lemmings.
      - jimh
        
        Troll harder.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Possible?
      - jimh
        
        Ha! I spent a lot of yesterday reading the YouTube comments on the video above.
        Mr. Karr is strictly amateur hour.
      - PhosPhorious
        
        How did this turn into a referendum on Obama?
        
        I will stop feeding the troll. My apologies to the BoingBoing community for feeding the sumbitch.
      - gobo
        
        I defend a man who has not been allowed to do his job, yes. You call names and put words in our President’s mouth and blame things on him that have existed for decades. That’s very foolish.
      - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
        
        So he wasn’t allowed to bring the troops home? He wasn’t allowed to submit a budget? He wasn’t allowed to close Gitmo? He wasn’t allowed to veto bailouts to big corporations? He wasn’t allowed to submit tax reform (he never did)? He wasn’t allowed to NOT spend $14 trillion, with most of it going to the Banks and WallStreet that these people are pissed at?
        
        He ran on the word “CHANGE”, not me. Again, why aren’t you holding him accountable for HIS words? That’s foolish.
      - gobo
        
        No, he wasn’t. Do your homework.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Douglas Karr,
        
        We have Rules, and one of them is about not repeating yourself. And really, stop with the ‘lemming’ business.
      - marilove
        
        So he wasn’t allowed to bring the troops home? <— Uuuum, he is bringing the troops home, by the end of the year, which is exactly what was proposed before he was even president, if I remember correctly (feel free, anyone, to correct me or add on to that).
        But you keep screaming, “He isn’t bringing the troops home!” when he is in fact bringing the troops home. You still sound like a paranoid crack-pot. Troll harder.
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_425GVKQCLFZMQYYENR7CJBRDVA jb
        
        omg.
        
        1) he brought the troops home. 2) budgets come from the legislative branch. 3) the financial system bailout occurred under Bush, and was voted in by republicans and democrats at that time. 4) the GOP has blocked any attempt by Obama or other Democrats to change the tax code.
        
        Any other nonsense?
      - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
        
        1) He ‘brought’ the troops home? He PUT THE TROOPS THERE!
        http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/22/world/asia/american-forces-in-afghanistan-and-iraq.html?pagewanted=all
        
        2) Budgets come from the legislative branch? HIS budget was voted down by his own party!
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/14/AR2011021400906.html
        
        3) Bailout occurred under Bush? It was approved. It was SPENT under Obama.
        http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/bailout_plan/index.html?pagewanted=all
        
        4) Tax reform is the GOP’s fault? Pleeeze. The Dems had FULL control and did nothing with it.
        http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/subjects/taxes/
        He NEVER submitted an overhaul of the tax code as promised.
      - marilove
        
        Stop it with the “lemmings” crap. No one is going to take you seriously if you keep using that word. Or “sheeple”. It just makes you look like a paranoid crack-pot.
      - Guest
        
        You hold one man responsible for all that? And we’re the fools? Ohh Kay.
- niktemadur
  
  Considering that OWS in some large cities have had no such incidents, this is about a local government taking local actions.
  Surely it was not in Obama’s best interest to have his health care town-hall meetings sabotaged by automatic weapon-wielding teabaggers? We didn’t see any National Guard there, nor here.
  
  Closer to home, my question would be “Where the hell is Jerry Brown?”. Governor of California, ex-Mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown the Buddhist, who spent time in Calcutta, who spent time with the Huichol people in Mexico, participating in the peyote rituals. Basically, a man who is supposed to have a broader vision of life, more empathy, than your run-of-the-mill politician or provincial Police Chief.
  - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
    
    The Tea Party have a lot in common with Occupy Wall Street. Even Obama said that himself last night on Leno. Both the Tea Party and OWS are peacefully demonstrating, both hate the alignment of big business and an out of control government, both feel like they’re not getting represented by the government.
    
    If you think anyone in government, left or right, is looking out for you anymore, you’re dreaming. Obama has done for corporate greed than any other President in history. One example: People bitched about Bush and Halliburton… and the contract increased under Obama. Like I said…. lemmings.
    
    Note: Please show me evidence of any Tea Party demonstration with a participant wielding an automatic weapon.
    - PhosPhorious
      
      “Note: Please show me evidence of any Tea Party demonstration with a participant wielding an automatic weapon. ”
      
      Seriously? You’re going to play dumb? Fine:
      
      http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/new_mexican_tea_partiers_bring_guns_to_anti-obama.php
      - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
        
        Dumb? You know the difference between an automatic weapon and a normal weapon, don’t you? And you do know that many states out in the West, including Arizona, have laws that allow you to wear weapons as long as their unconcealed.
      - PhosPhorious
        
        You got me. . . the AR-15 described in the article is semi-automatic, not automatic. My bad.
        
        But of course the point is that Tea Baggers brought guns to anti-Obama rallies and were not shot in the face, an OWSer who were unarmed WAS shot in the face. Your quibbling doesn’t change that fact.
        
        And you seem perfectly satisfied with that asymmetry.
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_425GVKQCLFZMQYYENR7CJBRDVA jb
        
        So, exactly how does that prove the Tea Party protesters were also gassed, flash-grenaded, and beaten?
        
        Oh, right, they weren’t. They weren’t ever.
        
        Thanks for completely irrelevant statements that attempt to evade the point though.
      - http://www.facebook.com/travis.pulley Travis Pulley
        
        In all fairness, I think that arsenal of high-power, long-range firearms with enhancement accessories brought to demonstrate against Obama were SEMI-automatic.
      - http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
        
        I don’t think you can tell the difference in a photograph. A fully automatic AR-15 is called an M-16 and is accomplished with what I am told is a very minor adjustment.
      - Michael McPherson
        
        If memory serves, you can do the job with a small metal file (wearing down the secondary sear in a firing mechanism allows the firing pin to fall regardless of whether the trigger has been pulled a second time) and some screwdrivers.
        That said, a field modification like that means you’ll blow through your ammo (you can’t set a worn-away secondary sear to three or single shot mode; it’s strictly full auto), and if you do the least little thing wrong, your gun tends to blow up in your hands.
        
        This is considered somewhat unprofessional.
- gobo
  
  No. Obama did not order this police officer to nearly kill a man. “Government” did not hurt him. A police officer broke the law and went against his orders to intentionally hurt Scott. Don’t blame figureheads and call names.
  - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
    
    Was Bush a figurehead? Did you blame him? (I do). Why does this guy get a free pass when the country is in shambles?
    - gobo
      
      I didn’t blame Bush for shooting a man in the face, no. I’m not that kind of guy. But I guess you are.
      - http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
        
        I think that the President and Commander in Chief holds much responsibility and that their actions; however small, can lead to incredible problems. As for Scott Olsen, I believe that Obama has been the champion of raising civil unrest and class warfare through his divisive words and blame of everything on everyone else but himself. I believe if we had lower unemployment, more money in the peoples’ hands that needed it and less in corporations’ hands, people would not be out on the street raising hell. And if Scott Olsen didn’t have to be on the street, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. So yes…. I am that kind of guy.
      - gobo
        
        I’m glad I don’t live in your world, Douglas Karr.
      - ikegently
        
        please don’t feed.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_425GVKQCLFZMQYYENR7CJBRDVA jb
      
      Because he’s still cleaning up Bush’s mess. Did the world begin on 1/21/2009 for you?
  - Ben Black
    
    That point is valid.
    
    Now then,
    if it is not “Government” will he face any due process investigation?
    I watched the clip several times -
    You declare his action ‘illegal’, notice NONE of the other uniformed paramilitary guys raised a finger afterwards to halt the flash-bang grenades when it was apparent that the people were helping a severely wounded innocent man.
    
    At one level it is barbarous-
    and another … they make this into THEIR STATE.
- foobar
  
  It’s the 1 percenters who control the government that are the problem.
- http://www.facebook.com/ian.brewer1 Ian Brewer
  
  The protesters are being repressed for opposing the unfettered power of corporations and Wall Street and their twisting of democratic government to their will through the coercive force of accumulated capital.
  
  It’s you who are the corporate lemming.
niktemadur

“Rhetorical question” means I don’t expect an answer:
“How do these law enforcement officials sleep at night?”

That’s right officers, you put a war veteran of your Armed Forces in a coma.
Now go and drape yourselves in the flag, puppies in porches while the apple pie cools in the window sill.
- John Delaney
  
  http://memegenerator.net/instance/10967204
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JG5AYMZ2NLPAERVKIS2SCIZDPQ Nothing Much
  
  He was on the wrong side of the cops baton. The cop can sleep at night.
PhosPhorious

“This only provides more evidence that the problem isn’t with Wall Street at all, it’s with our Government.”

Not exactly. It hasn’t been “three years of this.” OWS is a few months old. If you mean the Tea Baggers. . . they were never tear gassed, even though they sometimes brought rifles to their rallies, and even to town hall meetings where the president was speaking.

They were vocally anti-Obama, but for some reason their message didn’t attract a paramilitary crack down.

Occupy Wall Street is against. . . well, Wall Street. And they get gassed.

The problem with government is that it seems to exist only to further the goals and interests of corporations.
http://bhtooefr.org/ Eric Rucker

So, I wonder… who has jurisdiction over the police officer that threw that grenade, above the department in charge of that officer?

To rephrase, if one wanted to file assault (or even attempted murder) charges, could they go to the state police instead of the locals that actually did the crime?
- cymk
  
  If anything, it would be filing a law suit against the police department or the city itself. The likely hood that the officer who shot Scott Olsen will be singled out and named, let alone reprimanded, is slim to none.
  
  Honestly I would be shocked if the officer who threw the flash bang is reprimanded.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KHCUTUOZ2YXERCXQQN324LZSZY Mike
  
  You can try to get a criminal assault charge, but that depends on the state prosecuting. As individuals, we have much better luck if we file sue for civil rights violations:
  
  http://www.constitution.org/brief/forsythe_42-1983.htm
- Michael McPherson
  
  This would technically fall under the jurisdiction of the offending officer’s Internal Affairs division, and then it would be up to that same officer’s ADA or DA to decide whether/how to prosecute.
  
  Sleep tight.
Pag

Coming back from Iraq, I bet he never expected it would be American forces that would wound him.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  I dunno, I hear they’re pretty good at that.
- marilove
  
  Pat Tillman, anyone?
  
  Not trying to be crass, but, Nathan Hornby has a point.
DeeZed

The western governments are playing with fire and they will get burned. The corporate dictators seem to want actual class warfare it seems. They will get it and it will not end well.
SCAQTony

All I could send was $50 but it really pisses me off what the Oakland police gotten away with. Remember this murder of an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform? Democracy Now covered it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEDZy9Eib-U
- http://www.mikezed.com mzed
  
  Oakland Police have much to answer for, but not that incident. A Transit Officer, Johannes Mehserle, shot Oscar Grant.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant
  - kP
    
    BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Police are not the same as Oakland Police.
- franka_645
  
  We remember that. I also remember Oakland City Councilwoman Jean Quan linking arms with protesters in a standoff against police while demonstrating the verdict of that officers trial. She is now the Mayor and was the one who ordered the brutal police action against this peaceful protest, while the Oscar Grant demonstrations were much more violent.
  - grimc
    
    Actually, she didn’t order the raid–that was done by the City Administrator and interim police chief. Which isn’t to say she’s innocent; she should be recalled for incompetence, dereliction of duty, or both.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_425GVKQCLFZMQYYENR7CJBRDVA jb
  
  That was the BART police, as I recall. But it was in Oakland, which makes me wonder about the cultural philosophy of Oakland-area cops in general.
- kP
  
  Not necessarily Oakland Police – the riot shields were marked SHERIFF. Mutual aid agreements mean that the LEOs could have come from elsewhere, but Alameda County Sheriff is my assumption unless someone else has better information.
  - SCAQTony
    
    I stand corrected but as one or more persons noticed, there seems to be a “cop culture” up in Oakland that seems overly aggressive. This is three departments now: The Sheriff, The Transit Authority and the police.
    - http://twitter.com/celesteh Les Hutchins
      
      Large numbers of black people came to Oakland to work at the ports during world war 2. A bunch of them stayed on and had their friends and family come out to follow them. The city of Oakland decided to recruit white police officers from Jim Crow states because those kinds of cops “knew how to deal with black people.” The problems with law enforcement in the Eat Bay are a legacy of deliberately creating a racist, violence police culture in the 50′s.
      - SCAQTony
        
        Does anyone know if enough money has been raised to foot his bill? Personally, I think it is obvious that the Oakland Sheriffs Department should pay that bill plus damages as a reminder not to go shooting projectiles point blank into large crowds of mostly filled with law abiding Citizens. Perhaps arresting those specific individuals who are breaking the law is an option?
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_425GVKQCLFZMQYYENR7CJBRDVA jb
        
        That really explains a lot. Thanks for that historical perspective.
Cowicide

Meanwhile, the police are telling YouTube to shut down videos of police brutality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkUKW8NtJdE
Sean Nelson

Newspaper from near his hometown:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20111027/GPG0101/310280036&located=rss
ikegently

If we all stop replying to Douglas Karr, he might stop trolling us. Please.
lavardera

so, has anyone been arrested for this assault? is there a list of suspects? is there even an investigation?
lavardera

don’t let Teabaggers turn this into an Anti-Government movement. Its not about fighting goverment. Its about taking control of government back from monied interests, and then enforcing government on them that is fair and provides opportunity for all.
lavardera

It appears that there are two “crimes” here. First the officer that shot this poor man with a tear gas launcher. He was standing still, so either he was aiming at him, or the shooter is grossly incompetent with his equipment. Both are serious issues. And the second “crime” is attacking the people attempting to bring first aid to the injured man. Do we even know if these are two individuals or the same? I want answers from the Police force and the local government.

If you tolerate trickle-down economics for too long, when you finally take a stand no doubt you’ll end up with trickle-down violence.
marilove

Every time I look at the photo at the top of this post, I am shocked at how young the veteran clearly is. He’s younger than me, I’m sure (I’m 30). I guess it’s just kind of … disconcerting, because it used to be that when I thought of veterans, I thought of much older men (and women). Not 20-somethings.
burgerbuilders

“Any change in this situtation is not possible until a critical mass of thinking Americans are able to understand their own history and accept the fact that our entire economic lives have been spent in service to a tiny cartel of moneylenders.”

http://unicornpoo.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/very-pleased-we-have-entered-into-relations-again-with-american-government-rothschilds-1878/
http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

Meh, Obama was always a pragmatist. People who saw him anything else were fooling themselves and frankly, I want pragmatic people in power who can make hard compromises. Overall, he’s kept or compromised on about half of all his campaign promises. That’s pretty good in my book.
http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Good night all! Let’s all agree on one thing and say a prayer or two for Scott Olsen.
- marilove
  
  You do realize that not everyone prays, right?
Cowicide

After making a donation to help Scott Olsen… Please call Mayor Quan and let her know how you feel about this travesty. I just called and told her to step down (I didn’t ask). This police brutality happened ON HER WATCH.

Out of respect for Americans nationwide, she needs to apologize and remove herself from office immediately.

The number you can leave a message at: 510-238-3141
- http://www.marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr
  
  Is there a link to directly make a donation?
  - Cowicide
    
    At the top of this very same webpage that you are posting comments in…. is a link after the words: How to help
- lewis_stoole
  
  the mayor sets the policy for how the local authorities handle a protest?
  is that the case?
  on a different note, the one thing i noticed in that video is that all the police uniforms look the same. no one can be identified unless you see the badge number, which does not seem likely behind the mass of riot gear. maybe the badge number should be written in bold font on the shield, helmet, and/or on the jacket so that the cameras and witnesses can clearly tie the i.d. number to the offense for those times when things go horribly wrong and an investigation is in order.
coffee100

Every time there is any possibility of a genuine substantive conversation in this country, someone shouts “Obama” or “Tea Bagger” or “Democrats are to blame” or “Republicans are the problem” and all thought ceases while everyone re-aligns their position to side with their team.

Stop it. Just stop. The slogans and the mascots are the problem. It is distracting us from what we should be paying attention to. This isn’t about your side. It’s about Americans.

A man was attacked and injured exercising his Constitutionally protected right to petition the Government for a redress of greivances. That is the problem and nothing else. It has nothing to do with Obama and the Republicans or red states or blue states or any of that manufactured shit.

Every last elected official in the Federal Government should be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity. That there isn’t lectern-pounding outrage in Congress at the events of the last week is proof enough none of them are fit to serve.
EvilSpirit

I’ve lost track of what the topic of this thread once was.
jimh

The video has been viewed over 400,000 times since its upload yesterday!
Antinous / Moderator

Wow. The BanHammer is glowing today. Somebody must have linked us.
tinyinkling

Might be a good time for police departments, mayors, Governors, and others to recall the Kent State shootings… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings
Genre Slur

I’m Canuckistani, so I don’t know the law down south, but up here the identity of police is required by law to be transmitted in such instances as the above protest. Yet, the application of this has turned into the mercenary equivalent of the small print at the bottom of the screen in a vehicle commercial on TV. Also, police have been witnessed to cover their identification or remove it. This development to anonymity of authoritative violence needs to seriously be reversed.
I agree with the Lewis_Stoole cat who suggested that easily transmitted identification should become a priority, IE large, brightly coloured, codes which can be captured visually. Such identification should be placed on all relevant phenomena, such as helmets, guns, jackets, pants, shields. Not doing so indicates — to any reasonable human — a desirable intent to obscure individual identity, thereby diminishing legal, ethical and moral responsibility.
Simply disgusting.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QN6WUG7WMBDAGUPFVSJ6HJAS2A Darth

Oh, the humanity!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

HTF has this turned into an Obama thread? Has Obama turned out to be everything I hoped I hoped he would be? No, Has Obama done what I thought he would as I went to my first caucus ever three years and was filled with civic pride? No, and you gotta remember that Obama’s Texas Two Step radio campaign was what got me to participate in our complex hybrid primary/caucus system. Limbaugh had gotten a lot of Repubs to cross over to the open Democratic primary to sow division. It almost worked. Hillary had a llim margin in the primary. But Obama folks showed up and tipped Texas to Obama.

Ha everything turned out as I hoped. No. But things are a hell of a lot better then they would have been. Did you almost have sticker shock on your 1040EZ two years ago, but then turned it over and filled out the “making work pay” worksheet so you still got an OK refund? Obama! Did you have to fill out payroll tax holiday tax forms on all the new hires and fax them to corporate? You gotta remember that the business contribution part of payroll taxes levied against businesses that hire lots of low to mid income employees is a huge deterrent to hiring. Our government puts a huge business tax on hiring po’ folks. Hiring a thousand working poor is a bigger tax hit than letting the CEO cash in his multi million options at 15%. The Obama backed payroll tax holiday is supply-side economics at its best.

Are we all disappointed with Obama? Has it worked out how we imagined? No. But I’m not gonna complain much.

BTW, Occupy Houston is having a House of Corporate Horrors in Tranquility Park Saturday night and a poetry and scary stories reading on Sunday night. I may be doing a dramatic reading of Oliver Sachs “The Man Who Fell out of Bed” sunday night. If you are out in the burbs. I suggest you come in. These events will be way cooler Nightmare on the Bayou, or Phobia: The Darke Institute. We will not be cooler than the NW Mall Carnival. Hit the carnival early and then come downtown. The NW Carnival is the last chance the Great Plains carney tribe have to make the money to overwinter here in Texas before they come back for the Livestock Show and head back north. Times are hard for them and the NW Carnival is hipper than Astroworld ever was.

Oh wait, thread hijak.

Back to the original point. Shouldn’t Scot Olsen’s care be subsidized by the VA?
OurManInJapan

“…after being struck in the head by a police projectile”

Does anyone else find this language to be excessively neutral? I don’t recall the Rodney King incident being reported as, “Mr. King lies on the street after being struck in the head by police enforcement cylinders.”
http://jimbeach.net mindfu

1) Really? Obama put the troops in Iraq and Aghanistan? I guess he used time to travel to do this. Does the website you link to describe this time machine?

Sending more troops to prevent a disaster from getting worse, does not equate with creating the disaster. Which Bush did, by taking his eye off of Osama Bin Laden to invade a country that wasn’t even a threat to us.

2) So that also means its not Obama’s budget. Thank you for admitting that I’m right.

3) Thanks for agreeing with me as well that the bailout was planned and put in place under Bush with the approval of the GOP as well as the Democrats. That Obama executed it merely means he was doing what President’s should do, which is execute the plans of their forbears if those plans are for the greater good of the country.

4) Obama’s not submitting a tax code review is due to the fact that the GOP has refused to even consider any increase in any taxes for anyone above the middle class. Sorry if you think Obama not futilely wasting his time in the face of toddler-level opposition, is somehow the fault of Obama and not the toddlers.

So, you’re 0 for 4.

Why do I need to keep reminding right-wingers of history we all lived through? But I know why: you don’t want to remember it, because it proves how wrong you are. So, I guess I will have to keep repeating it. And I’m fine with this.
cstatman

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
ozdawn

So by this logic, as long as you get your share of the pie – its OK for corrupt politicians to fleece us of our hard-earned tax dollars and the criminals that run Wall-street to steal everything they can get their greedy hands on! Now that truly is a wonderful world to live in!
andygates

People are passing the hat around to pay for brain surgery? Man, you guys have the most barbaric, stupid healthcare system ever.
cheesebubble

It’s been pointed out that whereas the Occupy protestors are perceived as problematic, Tea Party demonstrations are always called patriotic and peaceful. I call BULLSHIT!
http://www.facebook.com/travis.pulley Travis Pulley

Why do you keep calling people lemmings? Do you hold the ignorant belief that they jump off of cliffs en masse as presented in a late-50′s faux nature show created by Disney?

Look, I don’t want to ruin your childhood or anything, but Mickey is just some dude in a suit, not an actual human-sized talking mouse.
marilove

Obama announces end of Iraq war, troops to return home by year end - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20123800-503544/obama-announces-end-of-iraq-war-troops-to-return-home-by-year-end/
You’re welcome.
lavardera

I just click the little minus sign and your stupid just goes away.
marilove

Way to miss my point and try to ignore the fact that I essentially just called you uniformed, or a liar (neither is something to be proud of). My point is that you were 100% erroneous, perhaps even purposefully, about the fact that Obama isn’t bringing the troops home. The rest of your “facts” are just as shady and empty. You are being entirely too simplistic (It’s all Obama’s fault! You are all Lemming’s!) and coming off as a paranoid crack-pot, as I said before.
Navin_Johnson

Nothing’s worse than a blindly partisan so called “libertarian”….
robuluz

I’ll settle for troll.
robuluz

I don’t think of them as evil, more mischievous. I’m happy to let you off with that, if it helps. Or matters in any way whatsoever.
Cowicide

EDIT: I just censored myself… I shouldn’t fan any more flames….. And I’ll just say this seems to me to be an inappropriate place for D. Karr to ramble on about libertarian agendas, etc. and there’s plenty of other threads to do that in aside from here. Actually, D. Karr, if you feel that passionately, then get your ass out there and risk your ass like Scott Olsen did for his country.