They’re shooting at people in Oakland. Imagine doing two tours in Iraq and then coming home and getting shot in the face by a police officer. And, for what? Protesting greed?
Scott Olsen apparently has a fractured skull and swelling on the brain. He may need surgery. And, again, what was he doing wrong?
oakland’s mayor and police have shamed themselves today. I’m sure you’ve seen the statement their mayor has going around facebook, congratulating the cops for the “peaceful resolution”.
this is the kind of thing that goes viral. people should be calling their representatives and senators and making them deal with it. these protests are not going to go away, and until the people are mollified, they will just grow. And if the economy goes down again, I can see riots.
Shame on Oakland. Shame.
I saw that video live last night from the air(I guess one of the Oakland TV stations). They showed people coming to Olsen’s aid, then just as this video showed, cops being super-dickish. Welcome to the United Police State of America.
From what I’ve gathered, the police didn’t even call him an ambulance even though he was obviously injured and he was brought to the Emergency Room by fellow protestors. He’s at the right hospital though. Highland is one of the best trauma centers anywhere.
re: Highland—in part from its legacy of being the drop-point for victims of gang violence from Oakland’s bad-old-days (yeah, it was a lot worse than this a few years ago).
Still, I was moved by another blogger’s note that she lives in an Oakland neighborhood, that has big problems with drugs, prostitution, and gang violence, and has heard statements from the Mayor and Chief of Police that the city lacked the funding to properly police her neighborhood.
But here, you have a few protesters and activists protesting against the Rich, and it;s time to pull out the stops, and pay to pull in cops from other towns and jurisdictions to keep these peaceful but noisy people down.
Guess you gotta have priorities……
Cops have been treating black and brown people this way for decades.
All of a sudden it’s “Us” they’re shooting down, and ITZ TEH MOSTEST BIGGEREST EMERGENCY EVAH!!!
Funny how that works.
I can completely understand how so many black folks arrive at the opinion they do, of us white folks.
I hope that when the mass protest of this senseless shooting by Oakland Police is planned someone invites Oscar Grant’s mother. She should know that America valued her son’s life too–belatedly.
You do know that OccupyOakland renamed the place they set up camp at as Oscar Grant Park, right(yeah .. it’s unofficial .. but it is a nice touch)?
calvin, you’re raining all over the “all white people are racist” parade.
we are, by the way. all of us are total racists.
Yes, it is ironic that this is all happening in a park named after a black kid execured on tape by Oakland police and the same white liberals who didn’t give a fuck then are suddenly shocked and outraged by police brutality. You are only shocked and outraged that it’s happening to white folks!
Oscar Grant Killer Arrested
BART Cop Manslaughter Conviction an Injustice
Oakland Police and BART Police are totally different organizations. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is a municipality of its own that spans across several counties and has its own police force. The station where it occurred just happened to be in Oakland but Oakland Police had nothing to do with it.
Just an FYI.
that’s such a thoroughly idiotic thing to say, i don’t know where to begin.
But I might say that demonizing everyone who doesn’t have the same experience as you as some kind of white racist who doesn’t care about black people isn’t going to win you many allies outside of people who feel exactly the same as you.
But this seems to be your one trick -screaming “that’s racist” at anyone who doesn’t see things your way- and so I imagine you’ll continue with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Quan
That’s an Asian woman Democrat ordering this crap. Just like Bull Connor.
BOTH parties are corrupt and deserve to be extinct. I refuse to vote for for a thoroughly corrupt bought and paid for Democratic Party. The Illinois Green party is a joke, but I’m voting for them anyway.
Obama should call out the National Guard to stop the cops from violating civil rights like Eisenhower did in Little Rock.
Don’t hold your breath waiting.
Just like Bull Conner. Ooookay.
Like Little Rock. Ooooookay.
i expect a person like you to pooh pooh when a veteran’s shot in the face.
same with nmp. neither of you served a fucking day for your country, did you?
You don’t know a mutha fuckin thing about my life! You don’t know what the fuck it feels like to have to worry about your child, a good college kid, constantly being pulled over or stopped for simply breathing black. Worried that just looking wrong at a cop could lead to his arrest. It ain’t a mutha fuckin thing privileged ass white folks like you are just discovering about police brutality that black folks don’t have to contend with everyday of our fuckin lives!
gotcha. so, to get it straight, your point of view is that as long as the victim is white, it doesn’t matter that a cop shot someone in the face.
for the record, i know people here in philly who say the same thing about black people.
you know what I call someone who thinks it’s OK an innocent person gets shot by the cops? I call that person a fucking asshole, no matter what their race is.
and calling me privileged is so hilariously out of touch, I won;t even dignify it with a response.
I can see why folks are arguing, but I’m pretty sure it’s not because anyone here thinks it’s okay for police to assault innocent people.
remonstrating about corporate greed and concentration of wealth and economic injustice for DECADES.
It’s very odd that now that his mantra is going mainstream nobody mentions his name in connection with it.
But I will.
Ralph Nader must be laughing his ass off watching all this.
I’ll bet he isn’t.
Ralph Nader never organized anything like this protest. It isn’t how he operates.
The consumer movement is an odd duck, as part of American progressive activism.
Ralph Nader moved beyond the “consumer movement” a very long time ago.
Anybody know where we can send a get well message to Mr. Olsen?
.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I would recommend that you include “(patient)” after his name if you send something to the hospital. It’s a big hospital and there could be some confusion. I know people who work there. I’ll see if there is a quicker way (email, fax, etc) to send something. I think he’s in Intensive Care or Critical Care. If I can get in touch with these contacts I may post a better way to send it as a response to this message. But if you are a flower-sender, the delivery person will get it to him for sure. They know how to get it there.
I’m somewhat disappointed with the local news coverage of the Occupy Oakland protests tonight. I am watching the “10 O’clock News” on KTVU channel 2 from Oakland and they are reporting it like the city is under siege by these protestors. But they have absolutely ZERO damage or violence to report. They just reported that many of the protestors wanted to go over to the San Francisco protests and they said “Understandably, the police will not allow them to enter the 12th Street BART station to go there.”
Why deny totally peaceful people from using public transportation? Now they are speculating that the protestors will overtake the freeway and walk across the bay bridge because the stupid cops wouldn’t allow them to peacefully ride BART under the bay to San Francisco.
But they’ve “taken to the streets!” Oh Noes! Earlier, there was an ambulance running down Broadway in Oakland and the protestors had the street full, dancing and celebrating in the street. The “on the scene” reporter said that the ambulance may be blocked and unable to do its business because of the (scary) protestors. Then the live camera showed the crowd happily part for the ambulance to pass.
Unbelievable. The press wants to report this as a bunch of violent protestors when they are actually behaving like a bunch of happy people at a street-fair.
Apparently, San Francisco Police are prepared to do the same thing as Oakland did. There are a couple hundred people at Justin Herman Plaza (at Embarcadero) dancing and making music and having a good time. Some city officials want to shut it down for “Public Health Violations” and they have the cops ready with riot gear and rubber bullets, etc to enforce these “public health” concerns. But many City Supervisors and the Mayor aren’t happy about it (and some are present demanding porta-potties and no police violence, etc.) I doubt the police will be able to move in, though they are ready to.
I am so disappointed with Channel 2, one of the best local news operations in the country. They have better coverage of most things than any local news I’ve ever seen anywhere, and I’ve lived in alot of cities over the years.
BTW, I live in Reno, but we have a local channel owned by the same company as KTVU who runs KTVU’s usually excellent News in addition to our own (crappy) local news every day.
This whole incident is VERY disturbing. I would hope that the local US Attorney or the US Attorney General is ordering an FBI investigation right now regarding the apparent violations of citizens’ civil rights that occurred in Oakland and the apparent disregard of these violations by the city’s mayor.
Criminal charges may be necessary against various city government and police officials for this.
And I hope that every protestor arrested during this DEMANDS a speedy trial decided by a jury OF THEIR PEERS for any charges filed against them, no matter how minor. I am sure there are dozens of lawyers in the Bay Area lined up and ready to take all of these cases pro bono. No decent Oakland jury could convict these protestors for anything they’re being charged of.
And I hope that every protestor arrested during this DEMANDS a speedy trial decided by a jury OF THEIR PEERS for any charges filed against them, no matter how minor.
I can’t speak for everywhere, but at a lot of the protests, the ACLU(or related orgs) have that covered. It is why people were being told to write a certain phone number on their arm in case they are arrested.
The part of this video that REALLY gets to me is tossing a flash grenade at people who are only rushing to help someone who is injured. They weren’t rushing the barricade. They weren’t threatening the cops in any way. The cop who tossed that grenade is a SICK PSYCHO FUCKER, sicker than all the rest of them who HAD TO KNOW that firing projectiles at that close range might KILL AN UNARMED CITIZEN!
What ARE the mayor and police chief THINKING? They’re sitting on a friggin’ powder keg already! “Hey, we’ve already pissed off the blacks, who cares if we piss off the white liberals?” Oh wait, that’s almost EVERYONE in the city of Oakland! They have ZERO chances of re-election now. The stupidity is mind-boggling!