Posted on 10/27/2011 8:47:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Scott Olsen survived two tours of Iraq, but his life could be over after being critically injured by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland, The Guardian reports. He's 24 years old.
As we know, Occupy Oakland got incredibly ugly this week as police tried to remove protesters from their camp in front of City Hall by using tear gas, fire crackers, and rubber bullets.
Olsen suffered a head injury on Tuesday night, and is now in critical condition in Oakland's Highland Hospital. Jay Finneburgh, a photographer on the scene, managed to witness and take pictures of the incident. Police policy specifically prohibits the firing of these weapons at a person's head.
"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," Finneburgh wrote.
At first, Doctors told Olsen's friends that he was in critical, but stable condition. Now they're being told that his skull has been fractured and his brain is beginning to swell. Neurologists are in the process of determining whether or not he will require surgery.
According to Keith Shannon, a friend who served with Olsen during his time in Iraq, Olsen was hit in the head with a tear gas or smoke canister, and he has the scar on his head to prove it.
Meanwhile, Oakland police admit that they used tear gas and baton rounds, but have denied the use of flash bang grenades. Protesters, however, say they saw police use them, and the more video that comes out, the harder it is to believe the police.
Olsen hails from Wisconsin, served tours of Iraq in 2006 and 2007, and is active in both Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
the left has their blood martyr.
The unions needed a dead body, and this is going to be it.
I don’t have much use for bottom feeding scum.
If you don’t like that, consider yourself one of them and I’ll give you all the respect due to any other marxist scum.
Why is that interesting? That's how I treat every other single group of people on earth.
Word of advice for anyone including a veteran who did two tours of duty in Iraq: DON’T STAND NEXT TO SOMEONE THROWING ROCKS AND BOTTLES AT COPS!
At the beggining of this video footage it shows the guy on the ground. As the other protesters move away there appears to be some kind of smoking projectile that shoots from the guy on the ground?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBo4HMriwR4&feature=related
I don’t believe the guy is as critical as the story makes him out to be. Generally the first 48 hours are critical with this type of head injury but the danger fades pretty quickly after that.
Even the REMFs?
Not sure why He is in that Hospital. A major Head Trauma unit for the VA is only about 30 miles from there. Prehaps He cannot be moved, or maybe not a Veteran.
How about this simple mantra: when the police tell you to move ... you move.
00:20 shows smokey projectile appears to be emamating from the guy on the ground.
Exactly. I made that same point here on this thread:
at post #17
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2798401/posts?page=17#17
and at post #28
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2798401/posts?page=28#28
Bottom line: Being a veteran does not buy you a free ticket to default respect for life. It is contingent on your treatment of your country and your fellow Americans.
If you join an anti-American group like Veterans for Peace, who have broken bread with and supported our enemies, then you lose that default respect we should give all veterans.
Plus, these scumbags have stood outside Walter Reed protesting. I have seen them with my own eyes and counterprotested against them. I detest all of them down to the bottom of my soul, I don’t care what their status as a veteran is.
A veteran joins that group, they are lost to me.
Which is as it should be.
What is surprising is that the mainstream media is not all over this....yet.
Because it sounds like something being good or bad is relative to people or situations. I thought everyone disliked relativism.
That is surprising. Perhaps they know something we don't.
Err, I’m not sure about you but my copy of the Constitution includes the word “peaceably.”.
“A large man began to choke him...”
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19150644
“We shoot white bitches like you around here.”
http://bigjournalism.com/abreitbart/2011/10/20/source-abc-reporters-life-allegedly-threatened-at-occupy-oakland-we-shoot-white-bitches-like-you-around-here/
If appears the police were firing tear gas grenades into an area sparsely occupied by a group of protestors. I think he was just unlucky enough to be in the way of a projectile arcing in. As far as the flash bang allegations go, none of the film I've seen show any flash bangs. I see a some gas grenades popping off.
He seemed to drop at the instant a tear gas canister exploded not far away. Do tear gas canisters ever fragment?
Another thing that bothers me about this story is that everything the doctors say is being reported second hand through family or friends.
Don’t be surprised if this dying vet shows up on left wing talk shows within the next week.
Last night in Oakland around 1000 people walked around downtown for a couple of hours. They can walk around the city until they drop for all I care as long as they don't break the law or disturb the peace. The news helicopters flying overhead is actually more of annoyance than the marchers.
BTW, I live three blocks from site of the Oakland confrontation.
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