Occupy

[Cain]

Nothing has happened in Oakland, everything is OK

[Jenne]

Awww...look at the pwetty kitty--that officer would surely NEVER hurt a fly!

...and is the caption slyly referring to the fact the protestors *couldn't* take their pets back home with them because they were evicted or they *wouldn't* because they're retarded shiftless hippies with so few responsibilities they leave their poor widdow kitties in the hands of the law?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like the assumption that the cat must have been left behind by the protesters. Couldn't possibly belong to a nearby business or home.

[Cain]

Incidentally, http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/ was on the ground at Occupy Oakland, and well worth reading

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Incidentally, http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/ was on the ground at Occupy Oakland, and well worth reading

The interesting thing is that the more violence is used against protesters, the more it fuels awareness of the protest and the reasons behind it... and the more people join. I don't think this thing is going to end anytime soon.

[Cain]

I'd call it the Barbara Streisand Effect, as applied to real life, only that would probably be called, in any historically aware part of the world, the Louis the VXI Effect.

[Cain]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-protests-live#block-5

This video purports to show Oakland police using a flash bang grenade during the protests.

Police have said they did not use flash bang grenades to clear demonstrators, but some sort of explosive is clearly thrown into the crowd in the footage.

12.52pm: This video shows a little more of the lead up from before a police officer throws an explosive device.

From around 30 seconds in, a figure lies prone on the floor infront of the police line, and it looks as if a crowd gathers in a bid to help them. It is then that the explosive device is thrown into the group by police.

The video then cuts to footage of the injured person being carried away, bleeding from a head wound.

12.57pm: Indybay.org has pictures apparently of Scott Olsen, showing him lying on the floor and then being escorted away.

Jay Finneburg posted the pictures to Indybay. He wrote:

    This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up. The bright light in the second shot is from a flash-bang grenade that went off a few feet from us. He was eventually taken to highland hospital.

Further down the thread Aaron Hinde writes that the bleeding man is "a veteran and a member of iraq veterans against the war". Hinde adds that he is "in the hospital and stable but he has serious injuries, we will see how he is doing in the morning when he wakes up".

Later a Indybay user named Adele wrote: "I'm at highland [a hospital in Oakland] with Scott now. If ppl saw him get hit, know who brought him in to the hospital or know how to get in touch w his roommate or family, pls msg me. I can't confirm this at the moment."

I can't confirm these accounts at the moment, but am trying to get in touch with all three people who posted regarding Olsen.

1.30pm: Scott Olsen, the protester shown with head injuries, apparently after being hit in the head by a police projectile, has a skull fracture and is in a "serious, but stable condition", according to a fellow protester with him in hospital.

Adele Carpenter, who has known Olsen since July, said she was told by a doctor at Highland hospital, in Oakland, that Olsen "has a skull fracture".

Carpenter arrived at Highland hospital in Oakland at 11pm last night, and has been allowed to visit Olsen – a former US marine, who did two tours of Iraq – this morning, she said.

"I'm just absolutely devastated that someone who did two tours of Iraq and came home safely is now lying in a US hospital because of the domestic police force," Carpenter said.

She said Olsen moved to the Bay area in July. The former marine, 24, left the military in 2010. Olsen is originally from Wisconsin, Carpenter said, adding that his family have been informed about his condition. A "military buddy" is also on his way to visit Olsen in hospital.

Video footage shows Olsen lying prone on the ground in front of police lines. A crowd gathers in an apparent bid to help him, but then scatters when a police officer throws an explosive device into their midst.

2.24pm: I've just spoken to Keith Shannon, roommate of Scott Olsen, the Iraq veteran who is in hospital after apparently having been hit in the head by a police projectile.

Shannon said doctors told him Olsen has a "skull fracture and swelling of the brain". A neurosurgeon will assess Olsen later today to determine whether he needs surgery, Shannon said.

Olsen, 24, was in 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, before leaving the military last year. He had been opposed to the Iraq war even before his first tour to the country, Shannon said. Shannon and Olsen met in November or December 2005, and share an apartment in Daly City, south of San Francisco.

"It's really hard," Shannon said. "I really wish I had gone out with him instead of staying home last night."

Shannon, who is also 24, said he had seen the video footage showing Olsen lying on the floor as a police officer throws an explosive device near him.

"It's terrible to go over to Iraq twice and come back injured, and then get injured by the police that are supposed to be protecting us," he said.

Shannon said Olsen was hit in the head by a tear gas canister or smoke canister shot by a police officer. He said Olsen had a curved scar on his forehead consistent with a canister

Protesters who had accompanied Olsen to Highland hospital got in touch with Shannon through Facebook, after Olsen said he lived with someone called "Keith". Shannon said he was told Olsen was unable to say his surname.

Olsen's parents, who live in Wisnconsin, have been told he is in hospital and were "probably going to fly out", Shannon said.

Both Olsen and Shannon are members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, Shannon said. He added that Olsen had been opposed to the war in Iraq before his tours of duty. Olsen served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

3.10pm: Scott Olsen is in a "critical condition", in Highland hospital, a spokesman for the hospital has just confirmed to me.

(We already knew he was there from the accounts below, but this is the first official confirmation).

So, to sum up, the Oakland police shot an Iraq War veteran in the head with a teargas projectile, and then chuck flash-bang grenades into the crowd (which had appeared to protect him) and on top of the wounded man.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Looks like people don't have a right to peaceful protest in the USA anymore, either.

[Cain]

Sure they do, so long as they're Teabaggers.  They can bring automatic weapons to their protests and everything!

Seriously though, it is times like this I wish the Teabagger rhetoric about the hippies being closet-Marxists was true.  Karl Marx would know how to deal with this situation.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sure they do, so long as they're Teabaggers.  They can bring automatic weapons to their protests and everything!

Seriously though, it is times like this I wish the Teabagger rhetoric about the hippies being closet-Marxists was true.  Karl Marx would know how to deal with this situation.

Only because nobody takes Teabaggers seriously; not even the Oakland police.

[Cain]

Perhaps, though I think it has just as much to do where, to use the Occupy parlance, the Teabaggers fall on the 99% vs 1% divide.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Perhaps, though I think it has just as much to do where, to use the Occupy parlance, the Teabaggers fall on the 99% vs 1% divide.

Right; they are overwhelmingly 99% who support the 1%, and that's exactly what the powers-that-be want.

Speaking of which, that guy that Cram posted about, the spin doctor; I was thinking that what the Occupy protests could really use is for one of the super-rich guys like Warren Buffett, who sympathize, to hire that guy to manage the public spin on our behalf.

[Cramulus]

The Oakland Police are practicing their favorite sport, EXTREME BRUTALITY

At the protest last night, a vet got shot, point blank, with rubber bullets. He hit the ground, collapsed into shock, and stopped moving. The crowd surged to grab him and pull him to safety, and the police fired cannisters of tear gas into the crowd.

As they carry the wounded guy away, he was unresponsive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLyUK0t0vQ&feature=share




The police deny using rubber bullets and flashbangs. But it's hard to win that misinformation battle when the protesters find rubber bullets and post videos of those weapons in use.





The Marine's name is Scott Olsen. He's seriously injured - his skull was fractured by a point-blank shot with a rubber bullet. He's stable though. http://www.veteransforpeace.org/news_detail.php?idx=123

The Occupy Oakland protest is about to explode.

[Jenne]

Oakland won't take this sitting down, either.  Like I said--the cops there are fucking brutal, and partly for a reason.  Mostly because they are just THAT WAY.  And protests and mobs AIN'T something Oakland is afraid of.  Well, not the people living there, anyway.  They're like San Fran's bulldog linebacker older brother.  Head full of crazy and muscle to boot.

Now I'm wondering what is going on with the powers-that-be--if those cops are going to get a slap on the wrist or what.  I'm conjecturing slap.  If they even ACKNOWLEDGE what-all went down.  They can probably get away with obfuscation in Oakland whereas in SF, no way.

[Cramulus]

I think it's crazy to say "We weren't using rubber bullets or flashbangs" when you were using them last night against a crowd of people armed only with cameras.