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.
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I happen to know more than a few of those people who were outside "Cheney's House", have counter-protested with them and broken bread with them many times. I'll wager I know more about that situation than you do.
Let me ask you the question, though I admit I don't expect a straight answer: At what point in time were the protesters at the Vice Presidential residence asked to disperse?
And, bonus points for you (if you care to answer) when said protesters were asked to disperse by the lawful authorities, did they comply?
I understand completely, TheGunny. I personally take very seriously the issue of shunning these people, and I don’t do it whimsically nor ask others to do the same.
But I feel these leftist organizations (many of which have their roots in the New Left of the Sixties and slavishly adhere to their liberal ideological goals) have done more to corrupt and destroy this country than any other force out there.
If someone takes up with them, they become my enemy. And I cannot tell you how sad it makes me feel to know my countrymen are my enemy. Particularly someone who has served. I don’t take that stance lightly.
It has been my experience when out with the DC Freepers in Washington that the authorities show a marked deference to the conservatives counter-protesting, no matter the situation.
I remember out at the roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, when we were all set and waiting for the moonbats to come over the bridge, the state police who were standing nearby waiting to get set up as well engaged us in conversation.
They had to be and appear publicly impartial, but there was not doubt they didn’t have any issues with us, by their speech and demeanor.
They understood we were generally not looking to confront them and would comply with legally issued instructions if asked.
But hey. It is those evil Tea Party people we have to worry about, right?
I used to have a liberal Ann Arbor cop living next door to me. We chatted about protests because college students have made it an art form and he told me that those protesters were the main reason he moved to our conservative little town.
He could go to work and not worry about the safety of his wife and daughters in a conservative area. He said that liberals try to provoke responses from police while conservatives take pains to avoid provoking them. Liberals make threats and conservatives make small talk.
I think the guy was discovering that he wasn’t as liberal as he thought.
I must say, I do envy the concept of your small town. Good for you.
You got to admit that owning a Avenger Air Defense System would be a hell of a lot fun to own & shoot.8*>
“Government power is the most dangerous power. I can’t blindly cheer when cops—the arm of the State—send protesters to the hospital. Change the nature of the protest from OWS to, say, Pro-Lifers, Gun Owners, Tea Partiers—and a lot of folks here would be singing a different tune.”
Leftards and “Pro-Lifers, Gun Owners, Tea Partiers” are not on the same moral plane.
Force in the service of evil is evil. Force in the service of good is—mutatis mutandis—good.
I long for the day that they open up on leftards with machine guns.
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