NOTE: OS IS GOING GA GA RIGHT NOW. BEAR WITH ME IF THIS IS A BIT GARBLED. THIS IS MAINLY TO SHOW YOU THAT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON...GO TO TWITTER.
It is the long night in Oakland. I am reading the Twitter Posts. Here are some of the top ones.
BarrettBrownLOL Barrett Brown
At the time Veteran Scott Olsen was shot in the face. Tonight he remains in critical condition from his injuries, which included a two inch skull fracture from a direct shot to the face with a tear gas canister, according to the Mercury News .
This video shows what a bunch of out of control idiots were in Oakland two nights ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q
This video shows what happened to Scott Olson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lbbWAgBy7E
From the UK Guardian:
"Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fractured skull and brain swelling after he was allegedly hit in the head by a police projectile during the clashes on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Highland hospital in east Oakland confirmed he was critically ill after being admitted on Tuesday night."
Scott Olsen is a 24 year old Marines Corp Corporal who completed two tours of duty in Iraq. He hails from Onalaska, Wisconsin.
Corporal Olsen is a member of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against The War.
Iraq Veterans Against the War is collecting donations on behalf of Corporal Olsen. Olsen served two tours in Iraq from 2006 to2010, according to Reuters.
He was at the Occupy Oakland protest with his friend, Keith Shannon. Olsen and Shannon had deployed to Iraq together. They both served in the 3rd batallion, 4th Marine regiment, where they worked in tactical communications .
For the past hour, there have been multiple calls for a general strike in Oakland. This would be the first general strike in America since the 1940s.
The Mayor of Oakland is Jean Quan and she is in a heap of trouble after last night and probably tonight. Word is that the police are gearing up for another round of violence against the protesters.
Quan's failure to appear and apparent lack of control over her police department yesterday lies is in stark contrast with former Mayor Dellums handling of the Oscar Grant riots.
Quan had already been under attack in a recall effort that could work soon. It only takes 96,000 legitimate signatures, then the election is held very quickly to recall an Oakland mayor.
Ironically, Quan is a lifelong liberal who has fought tirelessly for liberal and progressive causes in Oakland.
Even more ironically, she was investigated by the Oakland Police Department for her role as a protester in the Oscar Grant controversy. This occurred when she was a city councilwoman.
Many will milk this as a plot to pit liberal against liberal, but facts are facts. Just as the two young marines, one fighting for his life, have discovered, signing on for a tough job requires having the judgement and wit to carry out the job. This is more an issue of preparation and competence for the job as mayor of a city during volatile times.
According to The Recorder, John Burris, a local legal gadflly, and other lawyers are talking about clear indications that the Oakland Police Department may have violated all kinds of policy concering street protests and crowd management.
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Check out this article about the testimony given a couple of weeks ago by an ex-NY cop, Stephen Anderson, about how supervisors and cops regularly approve/arrest innocent people and plant evidence in order to make their arrest quotas and earn overtime pay. Their arrest of 700 OWS protesters on Brooklyn Bridge and hundreds of others fit this paradigm perfectly.
Leaflets citing this testimony and police practices should be passed around at the OWS protests in every city to bring attention to these practices and put spotlight NOT ONLY on police anti-Constitutional conduct, but the Republican caused budget cutbacks and layoffs. THAT's put cops under even more pressure than ever to make arrest quotas and earn overtime pay. This kind of stuff rarely gets revealed because of how powerful the "blue wall of silence" is. A cop could get killed for revealing this, and Stephen Anderson has been under constant threat.
Protesters should talk about this, put it in leaflets - that the cops are victims of the 1% too. But rather than violate their oaths they should stand with the 99%. Whenever protesters are about to be arrested, attacked or intimidated by the cops they should chant: USA...USA...USA... to remind the cops that we stand for the country and what it stands for and that THEY should too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/ex-nypd-cop-we-planted-ev_n_1009754.html
Recently, someone went beyond the procedural corruption and actually revealed the truth: a lot of cops are straight up sociopaths and psychopaths who hide their "Mr Hyde" very well.
There are too many White cops in Oakland. White cops have perpetuated this crap by falsely arresting or killing qualified Black males. Magnify that by America and by the pet non black immigrant of the week.
They can't be helped and are dangerous. Using their own peer pressure and publicity against them helps. The idea that I shared above, for example, helps put the protesters in a better light and the media will be exposed to the leaflets and the USA chants etc., which will put the police under more scrutiny and not be portrayed as the "victims."
I used to live in Oakland and taught high school there and lived in West Oakland. Very familiar with the dynamics on many level, including the Mayor's background etc.
I'm going to post the info on cops on another OS persons' article about Oakland too. Smiles to ya.
Maybe that's because I'm a San Francisco girl.
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!
They also shut down a few bart stations.. and we woke up to our 7th 3.6 earthquake in 2 weeks which is under the Claremont Hotel.
Did you feel it??
HUGGGGGGG
Ps: What the cops did to that poor guy that had two Iraq tours waas insane.. They should be sued
What a horrible thing that this young man, having survived two tours in Iraq, might die at the hands of his own people.
Fay: Thanks for your patience with such a messy post!
Jane: You just search for the topic of your choice. If the tweets that come up are satisfactory, you save the search! Twitter gets the news out before any other source. You will see a lot of retweets...these are the most popular expressions.
Tinkertink: OS went funky last night at about 11 pm PST. I figured that the hamsters were having lunch, but was stuck in the middle of the post. Thanks for having patience.
Linda: That sucker went on forever. I heard the rafters creaking! Whoo! It was in the middle of the Tahoe National Forest. There's nothing out there.
Myriad: Those kids were on Bart and on the bridge heading over to that site after they heard of the attacks. I feel bad for the mayor...she was really in over her head, but I feel worse for that kid. Some cops need to be fired.
boanerges: Is that wrong or is that wrong? There is anger and rage now.
That police officer that threw that flashbang at the people trying to help the downed citizen clearly knew exactly what was going on there. He looked, dropped his beanbag gun to a static position -- then stepped back as he pulled the flash bang and tossed it right into the middle of them.
That is simply the most criminal thing I have actually seen caught on video. That man should be in jail -- not vested with the authority to send others there.
I am a homebrew Californian, born in Napa and I lived about half my total life in the Greater Bay Area. Oakland has always been a haven for "bad cops with attitude" as far back as I can remember. And yes, the disparity of a predominantly black and hispanic city with mostly white cops is not lost on me, either.
Keep up the good work and let's make sure the World is Watching YOU! when it comes to the way the government through it's police proxy forces are stepping all over and assaulting our Constitutionally Guaranteed rights to assemble and petition for redress of grievances.
Right now, my primary grievance is the deplorable lack of civil control being used by the police forces, et al in Oakland, Atlanta and Chicago. They seem bent on harming folks with "non-lethal" force. Isn't "tear gas" (aka: CS Agent) a chemical weapon? Aren't we supposed to be NOT using chemical weaponry, even in warfare? So why is it okay to pop it off into unarmed civilians?
I'd call that an unstated act of war on the people of this country.
I am so mad right now.
-r-
Absolutely!
That is so ridiculous! Didn't that cop know that he was being filmed? And I did not see one rock or bottle thrown, either. They lie through their teeth like classic psychopaths and sociopaths.
bobbott: aye, aye, admiral!
nanatehay: When those smirking champagne drinkers at the stock exchange have to get through rioting crowds to run their crooked deals, they will think again.
bike: The Rodney King cops lied and people believed them, not the video. But now, the videos are starting to win.
All: notice how the worst police conduct is in predominantly Black cities? For generations, those cops have ensured that they, their kids and their cronies get the jobs by jacking up charges on minorities, then saying that they cannot be police.