The scene in Oakland on Tuesday, Oct 25th depicted in this video is simply appalling. The brutal attack by local police, who were reportedly joined by as many as fifteen police agencies--including San Francisco sheriffs and the Oakland police--against protesters looks more like scene out of Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war movie Apocalypse Now than anything else. The result of this attack was an Iraq war veteran named Scott Olsen ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull. And to highlight the brutality the protesters were under, as people were trying to help Olsen from his head wound, an OPD officer threw another tear gas canister at them. Now we learn that the Oakland police will be the subject of a formal investigation of the matter. That's little consolation to the Olsen family or to Scott himself, I would imagine, or to anyone else that was injured in the attack. C&L's Occupy America has decided to start raising money to help pay for costs and other treatments Scott Olsen might need to aid in his recovery with Occupy America's Scott Olsen Solidarity Fund. As Michael Moore proclaimed the other day up in Oakland: "We are all Scott Olsen!"
You've been so generous thus far when it comes to the OWS movement that I'm hoping you can donate any amount of money that you can because it all adds up quickly. We'll collect all the money and then bring a check up to the Bay Area and present it as a token of our solidarity with Scott and his family and friends. I'm sure they will appreciate all the help we can give.
We cannot permit mayors, politicians and cities across this country to brutalize peaceful protesters. Let's send another message of our unity to those One Percenters who believe there should be no middle class in our country whatsoever and who have no problem unleashing violence against protesters. Thanks in advance for your help. (I've set up a separate code for the Scott Olsen Funder so I can track the donations easily.)
You can also snail mail a check to our address. Please write "Scott Olsen" in the notes section.:
CrooksandLiars.com
PO BOX 66310
Los Angeles, CA 90066
I've talked to the people at IAVA, who had a Veteran's march on Nov. 2nd in NY in support of Scott Olsen and the 99 Percenters and they are helping out the Olsen family. They were absolutely thrilled that we are taking this action.
Apologies by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan should not have been necessary since any type of action against the protesters should not have been called for and she was rightfully booed off the stage. Occupiers must understand that city officials, CEO's and Wall Streeters across the country will demand others to find and perform all kinds of ways, no matter how insidious to try and break up the OWS movement.
Here's another video view of the devastation.
[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OZLyUK0t0vQ" width="425" height="275" resize="1" fid="21"]
